Former Transnet CEO Siyabonga Gama and other former senior executives have been granted bail of R425 000 collectively in the Palm Ridge Specialised Crimes Court where they made their first appearance to face a slew of charges of fraud, corruption and money laundering on Friday.
The Hawks and the Investigating Directorate arrested Gama, former acting group CFO Garry Pita, former group treasurer Phetolo Ramosebudi, Regiments shareholder Eric Wood, and Trillian Asset Management current director Daniel Roy (Novum Asset Management) at the Brackendowns police station at around 07:00
They are facing charges of contravening the Public Finance Management Act, fraud, corruption and money laundering.
Gama, Pita and Roy were each granted bail of R50 000, while Wood and Ramosebudi were granted bail of R250 000 and R25 000 respectively. Businessman Kuben Moodley, who stands accused of allegedly acting as a “fixer” for the Guptas, also appeared in the dock. He has been out on bail since his arrest in September 2021.
Investigating directorate spokesperson Sindisiwe Seboka said the former executives were facing the charges in relation to a double invoice of R93.4 million.
“In 2012 Transnet went on a ‘request for proposal’ tender to get transaction advisory services to secure funding for $2.5 billion (equivalent to R30bn at the time) to fund the acquisition of the 1 064 locomotives deal,” Seboka said.
Transnet then appointed JB Morgan to provide advisory services in May 2015.
“In July-October 2015 the same officials in Transnet started facilitating the termination of the JB Morgan contract. A cancellation resulted in them appointing Trillian in October 2015. An invoice for R93.4m was submitted by Trillian through Daniel Roy, who served as a director to Trillian,” Seboka said.
“The invoice was approved by Pita and Gama, and payment was made on December 3, 2015 to Trillian’s account. Three days after that, R74m was paid to Albatime, owned by Kuben Moodley, for no apparent reason. Prior to that, payment by Transnet was made to Regiments for R189m in June 2015 for the alleged same services,” she added.
Seboka said state advocate Andrea Johnson was confident that the ID was on track to hold accountable the people who had allegedly been at the centre of, or had facilitated, state capture.
The matter was adjourned to July 13 when the ID expects to add further suspects to the docket.
“This is the second seminal matter enrolled this week and more can be expected within six months,” Seboka added.
