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If former acting Transnet chief executive officer (CEO) Mohammed Mahomedy had his way, former executives Siyabonga Gama, Anoj Singh, Phetolo Ramosebudi and Garry Pita would be behind bars.
However, the appointment of Portia Derby as the new Transnet CEO on Friday night abruptly ended Mahomedy’s stint at the helm.
It is now up to Derby to see that the four former executives have their day in court.
Transnet board chairperson Popo Molefe said Derby “brings the insight, experience and competence to lead Transnet”.
Mahomedy believed that the state had enough evidence to prosecute the executives for allegedly manipulating Transnet to pay the Gupta-linked Regiments Capital for work done by another company while the parastatal had sufficient capacity to do the job.
In a sworn statement on October 7 last year, Mahomedy lobbied law enforcement agencies to conclude investigations and prosecute the former executives.
City Press has seen the document, in which he alleged that the conduct of Gama, Singh, Ramosebudi and Pita concerning the payment of Trillian Asset Management to raise a R12 billion club loan was unlawful.
“The raising of the $1 billion South African rand equivalent club loan was already done by Regiments, which was part of the McKinsey Consortium...
“It is my opinion that Transnet was successfully manipulated in relation to the appointment of Trillian as lead manager of the club loan and receiving payment for the services claimed, while the Trillian appointment was fraudulent in the first place. [Trillian] did not render any such services,” the affidavit reads.
Transnet paid Trillian and partners R93 million for arranging the loan.
However, a forensic investigation into the awarding of the multibillion-rand deal to procure electric and diesel trains for Transnet found that Trillian and partners had not played any role in securing the loan.
“Transnet individuals involved and responsible for the unlawful appointment of Trillian ... are Gama, Singh, Ramosibudi, Pita and Edward Thomas. Trillian individuals involved are Eric Wood and Daniel Roy.”
Hawks spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said that “investigation is continuing” and confirmed that the Hawks had obtained statements from Transnet officials as part of the investigation into corruption and state capture.
Fingers pointing at Mahomedy
City Press has learnt that Mahomedy also has to answer some questions from police.
Separate documents containing the signatures of both Mahomedy and acting chief operating officer Richard Vallihu indicate that they played a role in the controversial contracts at Transnet.
The case involves the payment of R1.2 billion for the relocation of manufacturing facilities by Bombardier and China North Rail from Pretoria to Durban in 2014.
However, there never was such a facility set up in Durban.
Police are also probing whether he signed off on the contentious inflation of the purchasing price of 1 064 locomotives from R38 billion to R54.5 billion.
In his statement to the police, Mahomedy has distanced himself from any wrongdoing.
“On numerous occasions, between 2013 and 2015, I intermittently acted as group chief financial officer at Transnet in the absence of Singh. It is on this basis that my signature appears in a variety of memoranda, approving certain decisions that would have been the subject matter of these memoranda,” his affidavit reads.
Singh told City Press on Saturday that Mahomedy could not distance himself from the deals which he signed off: “I haven’t seen his police statement, but he cannot absolve himself from the deals he signed for. I am shocked that he was let out when other people were taken through a disciplinary process,” Singh said.
In the case of Vallihu, a Transnet memorandum dated 15 May 2014 showed that he, in his capacity as chief executive of Transnet engineering, wrote to former group CEO Brian Molefe to facilitate the relocation of the manufacturing facilities.
People close to Transnet questioned why Vallihu, who is said to enjoy some proximity to powerful politicians in the governing ANC, has since been promoted and had no action taken against him, as it happened with the likes of Gama.
City Press understands that there might have been deals cut where individual players in the locomotive deal got a reprieve for cooperating with the investigation.
Transnet spokesperson Molatwane Likhethe said Transnet had submitted Mahomedy’s statement, together with all supporting documents, to the Zondo commission.
He said Mahomedy was still going to appear before the commission for further examination and cross-examination by affected parties.
He was not in a position to give public comment on his statement to the police and the commission.
“We advise that any questions and queries on his evidence be referred to the commission,” Likhethe said.
On Vallihu and others, Likhethe said there would have been no reason for Transnet to pursue disciplinary action or consequence management of whatever nature against them because they were never involved in the determination of the relocation costs for the manufacturing facilities.
Vallihu had not responded by the time of publishing despite questions having been sent on Friday morning.
Gama, Singh, Ramosebudi and Pita have previously denied any wrongdoing.
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Abram MashegoSenior journalist | City Press | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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City Press is an agenda-setting South African news brand that publishes across platforms. Its flagship print edition is distributed on a Sunday.
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