Prasa deal: ‘R80m to ANC’
PAID TO NON-CREDITORS OF FIRM ON DIRECTOR’S ORDERS Set R3.5bn Swifambo contract aside.
Aself-confessed Angolan friend of President Jacob Zuma’s reportedly insisted 10% of a multibillion-rand Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) tender be channelled to “the movement”.
The Prasa scandal now allegedly implicates the ANC in deals intended to benefit the ruling party’s coffers, News24 reported yesterday. The locomotive deal was reportedly mentioned in high court papers by Prasa chairperson Popo Molefe yesterday in Pretoria.
The locomotives were unsuitable for SA’s rail network and the engineer who recommended them lied about his qualifications. The website said: “Molefe alleges under oath that the supplier of Prasa’s controversial Afro 4 000 locomotives paid R80 million to ‘entities who were not creditors’ of the company, after an Angolan businesswoman [Maria da Cruz Gomes] insisted 10% of the tender’s value be paid to the ANC.”
Molefe’s affidavit was in response to that of Swifambo Rail Leasing, which won the tender. Molefe supports Prasa’s bid for the R3.5 billion contract to be set aside.
The website reported that Molefe claims “R80 million of the proceeds from the Prasa locomotives contract was channelled to the ANC”. The R80 million allegedly went to Similex, where Gomes is reportedly a director, and to George Sabelo, a business partner of Zuma’s son. The ANC was not aware of payments from Similex.
The website said the ANC issued a statement rejecting the allegations contained in the article. “The ANC has not received any such funds from the companies concerned and condemns in the harshest possible terms rumour-mongering.” – Citizen reporter