JOHANNESBURG - The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) says years' worth of tedious investigation allowed for the tracing of the flow of money from a multibillion-rand PRASA contract to luxury properties linked to former Group CEO Lucky Montana.
According to SIU spokesperson Selby Makgotho, the investigations, which focused on the controversial R5.6 billion Interpreted Security Access Management System contract, started around 2014.
This was when the SIU came in with a proclamation.
The contract in question was awarded to Siyangena Technologies.
The two properties linked to Montana are in Hurlingham, Johannesburg, and Waterkloof, Pretoria. Combined, they are worth nearly R16 million.
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Makgotho said investigators worked through years of money trails from PRASA around 2009 to 2015 while also analysing available evidence.
“We are confident that we have done this investigation, considered all the available evidence, subpoenaed all the required documentation, but also followed the money trail,” he said.
Part of the investigations also saw bank records being analysed with “due diligence”, as well as Montana’s income and spending patterns being analysed.
That was when they realised something was amiss.
“Those incomes do not tally,” he said
According to Makgotho, there was a property of R13.5 million that was purchased and immediately thereafter demolished.
“I think there were modifications that they needed to do, and again, the funds to subsidise all those things, in our view, do not tally.
“They raised a very questionable relationship between the income that was received versus what was actually spent," Makgotho he said.
The SIU has secured a preservation order freezing two luxury properties linked to the former PRASA CEO.
In a lengthy statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, Montana responded to the SIU, saying they have “become desperate”.
He said the SIU did not obtain any order to freeze his assets.
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“The SIU approached the Tribunal which is equivalent to a court, not seek a provisional order, pending my filing of a notice to oppose, within 10 days. I was served with papers on or about 9 July 2026 and filed my notice to oppose last Thursday.
He damned the manner in which the matter transpired, even going to the extent of questioning the day on which the order was obtained.
“What surprises me is the SIU choosing Sunday, a holy day for many Christians in the land, to lie to citizens that it had obtained a preservation order against two of my properties. It is a blue lie. It obtained a provisional order to start the legal process. They chose Sunday to tell this lie, hoping this would have the biggest impact and present me as a criminal.”
He vowed that the SIU will not defeat him.
“The SIU and other Organs of State continue to dream of the day they will feed on the carcass of Lucky Montana. But this will not happen, not in this lifetime,” he said.
SIU confirmed that the preservation order is an interim order which seeks to invite Mondana on 11 August to show why this interim order should not be made final.
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But he said their work does not end there.
“In a month, we are looking at instituting civil recovery proceedings so that we move with the speed that is required, but not only with the speed but also having gone through the witness statements and having done a thorough and meticulous investigation.
“We are convinced that we have a case that will be presented before the Special Tribunal in our favour," Makgotho said.