‘Dirty hand’ of ‘Stellenbosch Mafia’ fingered in former Transnet CEO GAMA and co- accused arrest says BLF leader Andile Mngxitama

Black First Land First (BLF) leader Andile Mngxitama in Parliament. Image : Ayanda Ndamane/African News Agency/ANA

Black First Land First (BLF) leader Andile Mngxitama in Parliament. Image : Ayanda Ndamane/African News Agency/ANA

Published May 27, 2022

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Black First Land First (BFL) leader Andile Mngxitama has tweeted that the dirty hand of the so- called ‘Stellenbosch Mafia’ is behind the arrest of former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Transnet Siyabonga Gama.

Five former executives of State-owned enterprise Transnet, arrested on charges including fraud, corruption and money laundering. Image: Investigative Directorate

In a tweet the BFL President said that the arrest of Gama and others was a calculated effort to have the accused spend the weekend in jail.

“It's a state harassment tactic. Incidentally, I shall have a chapter in the Gupta book to show how profitable Transnet was under Gama,” tweeted Mgnxitama.

In a statement by the Investigating Directorate (ID) of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Gama and his co-accused got bail at the Palm Ridge Specialised Crimes Court on the R93m double invoice corruption matter.

Five former executives of State-owned enterprise Transnet, arrested on charges including fraud, corruption and money laundering. Image: Investigative Directorate

“The Palm Ridge Specialised Crimes Court granted bail to former Group Chief Executive of Transnet Siyabonga Gama, former Acting Group Chief Financial Officer Garry Pita, former Group Treasurer Phetolo Ramosebudi, Regiments shareholder Eric Wood, Trillian Asset Management current Director Daniel Roy (Novum Asset Management),” said an NPA (ID) statement.

In the statement the NPA (ID) highlighted that Gama, Pita and Roy have been granted bail of R50 000 each while Wood has been granted R250 000 bail and Ramosebudi, R25 000.

The statement tried to clarify why the former officials were in court.

“In 2012 Transnet went on a Request for Proposal tender to get transaction advisory services to secure funding for $2.5 billion (equivalent of R30 billion at the time) to fund the acquisition of the 1064 locomotives deal,” read the statement.

Going back to 2015 the NPA (ID) said that Transnet then appointed JB Morgan for advisory services and the same year in October the officials are said to have started facilitating the termination of the JB Morgan contract.

“An invoice of R93.4 million was submitted by Trillian through Daniel Roy, who served as a director to Trillian. The invoice was approved by Pita and Gama, and payment was made on 03 December 2015 to Trillian’s account. Three days after that, R74 million was paid to Albatime, owned by Kuben Moodley, for no apparent reason,” added the NPA.

Furthermore the NPA says that prior to that, payment was made to Regiments for R189 million in June 2015 for the alleged same services.

Advocate Andrea Johnson claimed that he is confident that the Investigating Directorate (ID) thinks its track to hold accountable those alleged to have been at the centre of, or facilitated state capture.

The said accused joined businessman Kuben Moodley on the dock, who was arrested in September 2021.

The NPA said that the matter will return to court on 13 July 2022 with the presumption of adding further accused.

NPA ID spokesperson Sindisiwe Seboka, confirmed that more arrests should be expected, also in attendance in court was the South African Revenue Service (SARS).

The arrest is linked to the State Capture Commission of Inquiry which was headed by controversial Chief Judge Justice Raymond Zondo, at the time of asking Seboka she could not confirm whether or not it was true that Trillian was paid for doing nothing.

Earlier this month, the NPA and the State Capture Commission said they were on a mission to solidify collaboration between the two institutions to bring perpetrators to book.

The leadership of the two entities met in the first week of May and decided that the Commission will continue to provide information to the NPA’s ID which pertains to the work of the commission.

Both institutions agreed that time was not on their side.

“The ID has so far declared 82 investigations and enrolled 20 cases and a majority arising from the work of the commission with 65 accused persons,” said Seboka.