THE corruption case against former Transnet executives including former the chief executive officer, Siyabonga Gama, has been postponed.
The men appeared in the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Wednesday, 13 July. Gama was arrested in May along with former Transnet acting group chief financial officer, Garry Pita, ex-group treasurer Phetolo Ramosebudi, Regiments’ Eric Wood and Trillian Asset Management director, Daniel Roy.
They face charges of fraud, corruption and money laundering, and were all released on bail.
The five joined Kuben “Gupta fixer” Moodley, who was arrested at OR Tambo International Airport in September as he was about to catch a flight to Dubai. The charges related to a Request for Proposal tender that Transnet issued in 2012 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 1 064 locomotives deal.
In May 2015, Transnet appointed JB Morgan for advisory services and in July to October 2015, the same officials in Transnet started facilitating the termination of the legitimate JB Morgan contract. The cancellation resulted in them appointing Trillian in October 2015.
An invoice of R93,4 million was submitted by Trillian through Roy, who served as a director at Trillian.
The invoice was approved by Pita and Gama and payment was made on 3 December 2015 into Trillian’s account. Three days after later, R74 million was paid to Albatime, owned by Moodley, “for no apparent reason”.
Prior to that, Transnet made payments to Regiments for R189 million in June 2015 allegedly for the same services.
Investigating Directorate spokeswoman, Sindisiwe Seboka, said the case formed part of the state capture leg.
“We are going after what we believe are key people pertaining to the capture of Transnet,” she said.
The case will be back on the roll on 29 August.
