Transnet thugs in suits arrested by the Hawks

Another set of Transnet thugs in suits is going to have their day in court. This is after their arrest on Monday morning.

After being arrested, two former Transnet Group executives are scheduled to appear in court. They will appear on Monday the 29th of August 2022.

The arrests were made on Monday morning by the Investigating Directorate of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), with assistance from Hawks.

According to Sindisiwe Seboka, a spokesperson for the Investigating Directorate, the arrests were made possible via agreements with attorneys.

The fraud and corruption case involved former Transnet CEO Siyabonga Gama, former acting CFO Garry Pita, former group treasurer Phetolo Ramosebudi, Regiments Capital shareholder Eric Wood and his employee Daniel Roy, and Kuben Moodley, owner of Albatime.

TimesLIVE has learned that former Transnet CEO Brian Molefe and former CFO Anoj Singh will be added.

The case was postponed in July until today. This happened before the Palm Ridge magistrate court. It was to allow for additional investigation.

As previously revealed by TimesLIVE Premium, the accusations concern the R93 million that Transnet paid Trillian. This was for orchestrating an R30 billion club loan to aid with the purchase of 1,064 locomotives. It was apparently a duplicate payment because Regiments, where Wood was also a director, had previously been paid for the work by Transnet. Trillian apparently did nothing but invoice Transnet to obtain the fee.

Fraud, corruption, money laundering, and violations of the Public Finance Management Act are alleged against the defendants.

The state capture inquiry discovered that the infamous Gupta brothers allegedly earned nearly R6 billion in kickbacks as the locomotives contract grew from R38 billion to R54.5 billion.

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