Case about track that was stolen in 2012 set to continue in June, more than 12 years later

• Former Passenger Rail Agency South Africa (PRASA) acting CEO Mthuthuzeli Swartz and Cape Town businessman Nadir Mohiudeen are on trial for fraudulently selling 42km of railway line for scrap.
• For two days, the Gqeberha Regional Court heard how state witness Adrian Samuels's company Akisisa was drawn into the deal.
• On Thursday, Samuels was grilled by Mohiudeen's advocate.

Mthuthuzeli Swartz, former acting CEO of PRASA, and Nadir Mohiudeen, a Cape Town businessman, are on trial in the Gqeberha Regional Court for fraudulently selling 42km of railway line for scrap. The line was uplifted between Sterkstroom and Maclear in 2012. The cost of replacing the line was estimated at R59-million.

On Tuesday and Wednesday the state's first witness, Adrian Samuels, described how the railway line came to be uplifted. Samuels was the general manager of Akisisa, a Durban based company that, according to Samuels, was promised 25,000 tonnes of used rail by Swartz and Mohiudeen. For this, Akisisa paid a R1.5-million deposit, but the material was never released. They were then told they could uplift a railway line in the Eastern Cape.

Taking the stand for the second day in the Gqeberha Regional Court trial against Mohiudeen and Swartz, who are accused of illegally selling off the railway line between Sterkstroom and Maclear, Samuels detailed how the pair misled them.

On Thursday Samuels was cross-examined by Mohiudeen's advocate, Mervyn Doralingo.

What followed was a detailed examination of a low-cost housing deal between Samuels and Mohiudeen which preceded the railway deal. It covered a contract with a municipality which fell apart when payment from the municipality was not forthcoming.

The relevance of the questioning was at one point questioned by state prosecutor Gerrit van der Merwe. It appeared Doralingo was seeking to discredit or implicate Samuels, but the details of how this related to the stolen railway line remained unclear by the time proceedings were brought to an end on Thursday by Magistrate Thabisa Mpimpilashe.

The trial will continue on 10 June when Samuels will return to the stand.

More than 12 years since the railway line was stolen, the end of this matter is not in sight.