Posts for May 2019
2 May 2019
Not long after he fingered Durban businessman Thoshan Panday for attempting to bribe him in 2011 to evade prosecution, former KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Johan Booysen was himself facing prosecution and fighting to keep his job.
Booysen describes determined efforts to work him out of KZN Hawks
3 May 2019
Former KZN Hawks head Johan Booysen told the Zondo Commission that in mid-August 2015 he too was invited to the Johannesburg home of the Gupta family, by Duduzane Zuma, the son of former president Jacob Zuma.
Booysen was also invited to the Gupta family home
3 May 2019
Johan Booysen told the Zondo Commission that former police crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli enjoyed the protection of not only former national police commissioner Riah Phiyega and police minister Nathi Mthethwa, but also senior prosecutors within the National Prosecuting Authority, who stopped at nothing to get rid of his enemies.
Booysen details Saps’ dodgy manoeuvres to get rid of him
3 May 2019
Richard Mdluli was the Achilles Heel for politicians and senior law enforcement officials alike, because of the protection he required from prosecution for his alleged crimes while he headed up the South African Police Service’s crime intelligence unit.
Mdluli was protected by Phiyega, Mthethwa, and NPA prosecutors
7 May 2019
Brian Molefe spearheaded Transnet’s capture from the time he was appointed in 2011, but it was former public enterprises minister Malusi Gigaba who enabled it by appointing the directors that he did, when he came into the portfolio in late 2010.
Brian Molefe, Malusi Gigaba drove Transnet capture
9 May 2019
One of the reasons for state-owned freight and rail entity Transnet’s vulnerability to capture was that although it had an extensive governance structure on paper, it applied only to tenders under a certain value, and on many occasions, contracts were signed off without the stipulated processes of evaluation being followed.
Transnet group procurement processes were opaque and inconsistent
10 May 2019
An unbundling of a R619m payment by Brian Molefe into four separate payments meant that although the full value of the funds went to McKinsey, the payments avoided scrutiny because board approval was not required.
Molefe did not have to get board approval for unbundled payments
15 May 2019
The biggest winner out of Transnet’s multi-billion-rand locomotives contract in 2014 was Gupta-linked consultancy firm Regiments, which had not even been part of the original bid for the contract, but was slipped in through the back door with the help of Brian Molefe and Anoj Singh.
Cost of Transnet locomotive deal inexplicably increased by billions
16 May 2019
The projected cost of Transnet’s locomotive procurement project – which was approved by the parastatal’s board on the back of a memorandum by then group CEO Brian Molefe – stood at R54-billion, via a confinement that did not follow supply chain processes.
Transnet paid agency millions for work it could have done in-house
16 May 2019
The commission of inquiry into state capture heard on Thursday how in May 2016 consultancy firm Regiments ceded its contractual obligations for Transnet’s multi-billion-rand locomotives contract to Trillian Capital Partners, with the help of a confinement process facilitated by former group CEO Siyabonga Gama.
Trillian paid R82m for work it did not do
17 May 2019
A business proposal presented to the Transnet board in January 2014 to request a confinement to China South Rail (CSR) in the procurement of 100 electric and diesel locomotives for use on the company’s coal line between Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal was grossly flawed, and should never have been approved.
Flawed proposal for locomotives approved despite engineer’s questions
20 May 2019
Transnet’s alleged irregular management of its R54-billion locomotives contract in 2014 did not end at the bias displayed in the manufacturer contracts, or the inflated costs of supplier services, obtained from a monopoly of Gupta-related companies, but also extended to the delivery programme for the 1 064 locomotives being procured.
Accelerated locomotive delivery plan a financial burden for Transnet
23 May 2019
A shelf company that made over R70-million for the supposed relocation of manufacturing operations in the implementation phase of Transnet’s 1 064 locomotives project was at the centre of the proceedings at the commission of inquiry into state capture on Thursday.
Company that scored millions from Transnet probably not genuine
24 May 2019
Transnet’s tender dispute regulations came under scrutiny at the commission of inquiry into state capture on Friday during the testimony of Sharla Chetty (nee Pillay), the chief information officer of Transnet Port Terminals – particularly in relation to her award of a multimillion-rand network services tender to Neotel in October 2013, during the absence of group CEO Brian Molefe, in whose position Chetty was acting at the time.
Transnet’s tender dispute regulations under discussion
27 May 2019
An offer to Transnet from IT company T-Systems of a R248-million discount in pursuit of the parastatal’s network services tender in late 2013, actually came from government – according to Gerhard van der Westhuizen, who worked in the procurement division of Transnet until 2014.
Molefe deliberately flouted Transnet procurement policy
28 May 2019
An ongoing investigation by Mncedisi Ndlovu and Sedumedi Attorneys (MNS) has found that China South Rail (CSR), the Chinese company that won a R2.6-billion Transnet tender for 95 locomotives enjoyed preferential treatment from executives at the state-owned entity – so much so that Transnet’s own procurement rules were bent to suit CSR, when it failed to qualify in the very first round of the tender evaluation process.
Transnet favoured CSR by changing its own rules
28 May 2019
Former public enterprises minister Malusi Gigaba allegedly played the role of enabler in Transnet’s contravention of government’s preferential procurement law in the state-owned entity’s R54-billion locomotives project, first entered into in 2012.
Gigaba encouraged Transnet to flout Treasury conditions
28 May 2019
China South Rail’s second contract with Transnet, for 100 locomotives, saw CSR calling the shots after being approved on an allegedly flawed confinement basis, a high-level investigation into Transnet has found.
Transnet allowed CSR to dictate terms and defy contract conditions
