Popo Molefe: It’s full steam ahead to derail Transnet graft
Epic swindles at rail behemoth will be Popo Molefe’s priority
● Popo Molefe, who was fired as chairman of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa last year when he blew the whistle on corruption, says rooting out corruption will be his priority at Transnet.
He was appointed chairman of Transnet by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan two weeks ago and says there is no time to be lost.
“The South African public has become impatient because they observed these things happening for such a long time and the impression they got was that there was no seriousness in addressing them,” he says.
Transnet has been deeply implicated in state capture, including the alleged rigging of a R52-billion tender for the procurement of rolling stock.
Although only interim chairman, Molefe doesn’t intend holding back. He understands the need for quick results but says people must be “realistic”.
“The claws have gone very deep into these institutions, corruption has become pervasive. So it is not going to be smooth sailing.”
His experience at Prasa taught him what to expect, he says. “People destroy records and collaborate in misleading the board and directors. They go on a campaign to intimidate those they think are likely to disclose information that they don’t want to disclose.”
He says he doesn’t yet know how many executives directly involved in corruption are still at Transnet.
“I know some names were mentioned, and I know some of them are still there. They will have to be given the opportunity to be heard.”
Has the minister given him carte blanche to act against them as he sees fit?
He doesn’t need carte blanche from the minister to act against corruption, he says. That’s why he was appointed.
“The minister has said the position of government is one of anticorruption. That is the position of the president and the ruling party. The president wants to rebuild institutions, clean up institutions.
“The minister does not have to give me and the board carte blanche. We just have to discharge our fiduciary duties, and cleaning up is naturally part of the restoration of good governance.”
The mandate of any board is to make sure there is good corporate governance, and to hold accountable the executives who are supposed to implement the mandate of the company, he says.
Is he confident the Hawks will investigate properly those executives implicated, some of whom might have powerful friends?
He says the Hawks are obliged by the con- stitution and the law “to act on these things”.
They ignored all this when he was chairman of Prasa. He had to take them to court for failing to act on more than 39 allegations of corruption reported to them by the board.
“And you will know that they argued in court that I didn’t have authority to take them to court, but they lost.
“So we expect themto do their job, and I think they have started on a whole range of fronts.”
Nobody will be off limits, he says, no matter their political connections.
“The cabinet and the ruling party have said that they believe in the rule of law, that justice must take its course without fear or favour, and that they will not interfere in that regard.”
The Hawks have a constitutional mandate, he says, and “nobody should interfere with them. They must act on their mandate. To the extent that they do not act I will be among those compelling them to do so.”
He is sensitive to the fact that his appointment as chairman is only an interim one. He would like to continue in the job.
But will he have the support of influential people in the ANC and in the government who may not appreciate his anticorruption drive any more than former transport minis- ter Dipuo Peters, who pulled the plug on his forensic investigation — which, with presumably unintended irony, she said was a waste of taxpayers’ money — and fired him?
“There has been a paradigm shift in respect of the cabinet and the government collectively,” he says. “They seem to be prepared to act. Parliament is now seriously discharging its oversight responsibilities.”
Maybe so, but dealing with “the sorts of things we’ll have to deal with”, he might have to watch his back.
One of the things his board will be doing is examining those lucrative procurement contracts. If they were signed in compliance with the law, then no matter how distasteful, there’s not much he’ll be able to do, he says.
“We’ll be looking at them to get an understanding of what they are because we’re going to be accounting in respect of those contracts so we need to know what they entail.”
And take action if there is any sniff of illegality?
“Yes, that is very much part of our fiduciary duties.”
Gordhan has said that to justify their existence, state-owned enterprises must deliver public services at reduced costs that enable businesses to be more competitive.
This is very much how Molefe, 66, a close comrade of Gordhan’s in the anti-apartheid struggle, sees this new challenge, too.
“Transnet has a responsibility to contribute extensively to the growth of the economy through investment in infrastructure and jacking up its logistics systems to ensure that its freight rail is up to standard and efficient enough to assist customers to move their goods as quickly as possible, because it plays a critical role in imports and exports.”
A sore point is Transnet’s monopoly over ports and pipelines, which allows it to charge exorbitant prices, making it very difficult for local businesses to be globally competitive.
“This is something we will obviously have to discuss with stakeholders,” he says. “To the extent that we can minimise areas where we operate as a monopoly, we must do so.”
Molefe says fixing Transnet’s battered relationship with its stakeholders will be a priority. It’s about creating an image of integrity, he says. It’s going to be tough, but he’s been there before.
The claws have gone very deep into these institutions, corruption has become pervasive. So it is not going to be smooth sailing