DA calls for probe into ‘traingate’

‘CORRUPT DEPLOYEES’: MOLEFE ‘LIABLE FOR BILLIONS’

Current Transnet board must act on legal reports or become complicit, says DA.

The Democratic Alliance yesterday called for a criminal investigation into the “traingate” scandal to be instituted without delay. The latest forensic report by law firm Mncedisi Ndlovu & Sedumedi (MNS) Attorneys on the R15.4 billion price inflation on Transnet locomotives procurement will form part of the affidavit of the criminal charges the DA will be laying against former CEO Brian Molefe, former chief financial officer Anoj Singh, board sub-committee chairperson Iqbal Sharma, and Gupta lieutenant Salim Essa, DA spokesperson Natasha Mazzone said.

The MNS report recommended that corruption charges be brought against the four individuals and steps be taken by Transnet to recover the money from Molefe.

This latest report followed a Werkmans Attorneys report, which fingered Molefe, Gupta associates and current Transnet CEO Siyabonga Gama, who may have trespassed the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) with “... serious breaches of statutes, regulations, corporate governance and unlawful conduct in relation to the transaction involving billions of rand”, Mazzone said.

“That two reports from different law firms have reached the same conclusion on the magnitude of the criminal enterprise that Molefe and the Gupta associates presided over for the benefit [of] Gupta-linked firms provides enough evidence for a criminal investigation to be instituted without delay,” Mazzone said.

Transnet was a vital cog in South Africa’s economic infrastructure and the financial pilferage it endured at the hands of “corrupt ANC deployees like Molefe” may have cost thousands of jobs, Mazzone said.

It was therefore essential that while criminal charges were pursued, the current Transnet board act on the MNS recommendation to recover money lost by Molefe through his “deliberate acts of economic espionage”.

“Failure to do so will render the entire board complicit in violating good corporate governance practices,” she said.

Yesterday, the Sunday Times reported that Molefe may have to pay back some of the almost R19 billion he was accused of squandering on a tainted locomotive deal while he was CEO. – ANA