Councilwoman railways For years, Gordana Šofa complained about the damage caused to her home by the works at the station Zemun Polje. In desperation, she sought help from a woman who would turn out to be a connection to the very top of the state. However, even after the construction inspection banned the use of the station due to the threat to people's lives, Šofa was left to live in the damaged rooms in the attic, writes Filip Rudić in The new economy.
"I no longer have the conditions to live. It was, until the reconstructions started," says Shofa for New Economy.
She has been working on the railway for 35 years, and her father, mother and grandfather also worked there. As a single mother of two children, she received the necessary accommodation in the attic of the Zemun Polje railway station.
Now 62-year-old Shofa and her 82-year-old mother live there. The accommodation belongs to the Railway Infrastructure of Serbia, and Šofa pays for its use.
He says that the problems due to the works started in March 2021.
First, the sewage overflowed, so the feces could be felt "a kilometer around". The workers climbed on the roof to record the vibrations as the trains passed by, so they demolished the roof tiles.
Since then, water has been seeping into the bathroom, because "when it rains outside, it also rains inside," says Shofa. He adds that during the works, the gutter was removed and it was not there for two years, which is why all the rooms became damp.
Shofa says that she wrote to "everyone in turn" - the Ministry of Construction, the Railway Infrastructure of Serbia, but no one answered her emails.
Why is Vukšić important?
And then the workers told her that it was in vain to write to the authorities and that she should write to a woman named Nataša Vukšić, says Šofa.
"They said that everyone trembles before her, that she contacts all the directors regarding water supply, sewage, roads, with subcontractors, that she is in charge of everything, that's what they told me - if she doesn't help you, no one will," says Shofa.
As New Economy previously revealed, Vukšić is a long-time associate of President Aleksandar Vučić, and from the shadows plays a role in the project of reconstruction and adaptation of the railway to Hungary, even though the president has no authority for this according to the Constitution and the law.
One of the witnesses in the proceedings regarding the fall of the canopy in Novi Sad revealed that Nataša Vukšić convened and led meetings of the most important actors in the railway reconstruction project.
But at the time she asked for help, no one told Šofa why Vukšić was important and where she came from. "They just told me that everything is done as she says," Shofa said.
Gordana Šofa found out that Vukšić came on tours several times. She says that her neighbors were "properly invited" on those occasions, and that in the end they got another accommodation and moved out.
She got Nataša Vukšić's email from the station chief: "The train conductor called him and asked - do you have an email from Nataša?" He said yes, and he gave me an email, because they had to report the state of construction."
The emails that Gordana Šofa sent to Vukšić, institutions and other managers on the railway project were published on the website of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Novi Sad, as part of the documentation collected during the investigation into the fall of the canopy.
"Dear Sir, I am writing to you in the hope that only you with your influence will be able to help me solve the problem," Shofa wrote in the first email in February 2022.
Read the full text on this topic on the portal New Economy
