Dear Editor
The DA welcomes the arrests of former Transnet group chief executive, Brian Molefe, and former finance chief, Anoj Singh, this morning.
The DA has long called for their arrests in connection with a R93 million corruption fraud case.
While others have already been charged in this case, it seems that the last chickens have now finally come home to roost.
Under Molefe and Singh, the Guptas and other ANC cadres used Transnet as their own personal piggy bank.
The DA believes that the next step must be for the R41.2 billion in contracts that were awarded to companies linked to the Guptas and their associate Salim Essa, to be recouped.
Billions that should have gone towards developing South Africa into a prosperous country has been stolen and squandered during the years of state capture.
The DA hopes that the arrests of Molefe, Singh and other Transnet executives today is finally the beginning of justice and that all others implicated will follow in quick succession.
Regards
Adv Glynnis Breytenbach MP
DA Shadow Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development
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Seven years after Trillian boss and Regiment’s shareholder Eric Wood received an e-mail** from ‘Gupta fixer’ and sole director of Albatime, Kuben Moodley, to outline a deal that cost South African taxpayers a whopping R189,2 million, the pair will today appear in the Palm Ridge court alongside former Transnet executives Brian Molefe (former CEO) and Anoj Singh (former CFO). Molefe and Singh were arrested this morning together with former Regiments executive director, Niven Pillay, and former Regiments CEO, Litha Nyhonyha.
The suspects will be joining Moodley, Wood, Transnet’s former acting CFO Garry Pita and former treasurer Phetolo Ramosebudi as well as Trillian co-founder Daniel Roy in the dock on charges of fraud and corruption relating to Transnet’s procurement of 1 064 freight locomotives.
OUTA welcomes the arrests and says Molefe and Singh has a lot to account for when it comes to the billions South Africa lost as a result of state capture. “They were not only involved in state capture at Transnet, but also later at Eskom, the state’s crippled power utility. We are also happy to see that OUTA’s referrals and submissions on state capture to the law-enforcement agencies contributes to the arrest of state capturers,” said OUTA’s CEO, Wayne Duvenage.
Rudie Heyneke, OUTA’s state capture expert, explains the deal that landed Molefe and Singh in court today.
“In order to purchase the locomotives, Transnet secured a $2.5 billion loan facility from the China Development Bank, the so-called CDB loan.” The 2015 loan, of which $1.5 billion was drawn down, formed part of the financing for the purchase of the locomotives, of which some were purchased from the China state-owned CRRC locomotive manufacturer.
The balance of $1 billion was financed through a so-called “club loan” in South Africa. JP Morgan was replaced by Trillian as the lead arranger and for that an additional R93m was paid by Transnet to Trillian. “The original accused (Gama, Pita, Ramosebudi, Wood, Moodley and Roy) appeared previously for irregularities on this transaction. The NPA has now also charged Molefe, Singh, Pillay and Nyhonyha for irregularities regarding the CDB loan.”
In August 2020 OUTA submitted a detailed Section 27 referral to the Investigating Directorate on how the Transnet Executives ignored the advice of the former Transnet Treasurer, Eveline Makgatho, that a loan from the China Development Bank would be too expensive and that financing for the acquisition of locomotives from the Chinese OEM’s can be financed at lower rates and fees.
Makgatho also warned Molefe and Singh that the CDB loan as it stood could be classified as a PFMA violation.
OUTA tracked the money flows and gave this information to the Investigating Directorate in the form of a lengthy affidavit with annexures. OUTA’s affidavit, written by Heyneke, was a detailed report and evidence on the planning, negotiation phase, conclusion, the commissions that were paid and how they money siphoned off was laundered. It also outlined suspected criminal acts relating to this loan, involving Transnet officials and Gupta associates who arranged this loan at higher than market-rate interest rates, taking a pay-off of R189.240 million for themselves as “success” fee.
“Our submission was based on documents including some retrieved from the #GuptaLeaks, from various datasets submitted to OUTA, whistleblower reports, Transnet-related documents submitted to the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, and the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission database,” says Heyneke. The affidavit explained how payments were taken for “facilitating” the CDB loan, with people with no business with Transnet receiving funds through an established and sophisticated money laundering network.
OUTA’s submission had recommended prosecuting at least 17 people, including all nine now arrested, as well as Atul Gupta, his wife Chetali (both were directors of Sahara computers at the time, with Sahara receiving kickbacks from Kuben’s company Albatime) and Salim Essa who received R20m and were involved with the planning and execution of the kickbacks.
