‘Swifambo paid R80m to ANC’

GRAVY TRAIN: PROCURED THROUGH CORRUPTION

Company director defies summons to appear before the commission.

The Commission of Inquiry into State Capture has revealed that Swifambo Rail leasing director Auswell Mashaba admitted to the commission that he paid R80 million to the ANC after his company was awarded a R3.5 billion contract by the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) in 2013 to deliver locomotives.

The businessman defied summons to appear before the commission on Wednesday, following in the footsteps of former president Jacob Zuma, who has refused to comply with a Constitutional Court order to answer questions before the inquiry.

Mashaba’s lawyers wrote to the commission stating that the summons issued for his appearance did not “constitute a lawful and legally binding document”.

The commission’s evidence leader, advocate Vas Soni, read from an affidavit Mashaba previously submitted to the inquiry in which he admitted to paying the ANC R80 million: “I was forced to pay money to people who said they were collecting money for the ANC and I agreed to pay R80 million.”

However, Soni said Mashaba had indicated he didn’t know if the ANC received the R80 million as the person he gave the money to had indicated he never handed the money to the governing party.

Commission chairman Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo said Mashaba’s lawyer did not put up any legal basis for disregarding the summons and instructed the secretary of the commission to lay a criminal complaint against him.

Zondo said defying summonses without going to court was totally unacceptable and it would cause chaos in the country’s legal system.

Swifambo Rail is behind the infamous “tall train” controversy. Under Lucky Montana – then chief executive of Prasa – Swifambo Rail won a R3.5 billion tender in 2013 to supply locomotives but the rail agency ended up with trains that did not fit SA’s rail specifications.

In November 2018, the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that “the tender was procured through corruption” and that Prasa’s specifications for the new locomotives were “tailor-made for the benefit of Vossloh [Swifambo front company] and, thus, Swifambo”.

They were collecting money for ANC and I agreed to pay

Back to school, back to reality, was the theme of February for me. However, the soundtrack did not sound like a fond childhood melody but rather like a scene from a scary movie with terrifying sound effects. Raising children isn’t easy – ask any parent. “One day when you have children, you will see,” my mother said occasionally, accompanied with a wooden spoon named Klaar gepraat, aka Done Talking.

This was going to be the year my blue-eyedblonde wild child would start school.

As a 30-something single mom, the thought of Grade 1 was nerve-wracking – from ticking off every item on the long stationary list to getting the school uniform and preparing for the big day.

I thought I was ready, only to discover half of the items we collected for the big day had been misplaced or played with during the Groot Trek earlier this month to a bigger apartment, which was another stressful event ...

Eventually, after searching, I found the clay – but the six different colours, meant to form part of the stationary pack, were mashed into one ball of clay now known as unicorn poo.

If this wasn’t enough, I had to fish out the stationary list among all the school e-mails of reopening and the ever-changing plans to adapt to Covid-19 regulations.

But I finally wrote down everything my daughter needed.

Pencils, check. Crayons, check. Whiteboard markers, check.

Clay, multicoloured folders and canvas sheets were still outstanding.

One day after work, I popped into the local stationery shop to purchase the last items from the list – the list I forgot at home.

I was very impressed to find the orange and blue plastic envelope folders next to each other on the shelves. But later that night, after the children have settled, I not only discovered the list I had forgotten at home but also discovered I had it wrong.

Written clearly in black and white: 1x green plastic envelope folder and 1x orange plastic folder.

Why on earth would I buy a blue folder? Perhaps my artistic background let me down and had me believe it was blue and orange, like the perfect complimentary colours on the colour chart – only there was nothing complementary about the blue and orange file, or the outstanding green file.

I was left wondering: was there any glue to hold this circus called life together?

But I realised my anxiety around the first day of school was not about the stationery but to get my daughter equipped for her new journey.

Last year, she spent half of the year at home as they rotated boys and girls to accommodate all at school during the Covid-19 pandemic.

As a mother, I watched how 2020 robbed my child of a normal Grade R and isolated her from a social life a little girl needs to grow.

Without realising it, I, too, was scared of Grade 1. Not because it’s new, but because of Covid-19. How was my child going to cope with all of this and a virus?

On the eve of the first day, after hemstitching her first school dress, I discovered we moved without an iron. Fortunately, the hours of DIY videos paid off: I had a hair straightener at hand.

Needless to say, the first day was a roaring success, with all the checklists done and dusted – and I have the photos to prove it.

I, too, was scared of Grade 1. Not because it’s new, but because of Covid-19. How was my child going to cope with all of this and a virus?