By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The State has been granted another postponement in its case against former Transnet big wigs Brian Molefe and Anoj Singh and others but it wasn’t without a fight.
Molefe and his co-accused, including former Transnet CEO Siyabonga Gama on Friday appeared in the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on corruption charges related to the parastatal’s controversial procurement of 1 064 locomotives in 2015.
During their court appearance, the State requested the postponement of the matter in order to provide the defence with the full disclosure of the contents of the docket which is said to be lengthy and detailed.
The defence, on the other, accused the State of being unprepared with its case and providing the accused with a draft indictment not signed by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP).
Advocate Thembela Bakamela, representing the state, said the investigating officer had reached out to the legal representatives of the accused to ask them to provide hard drives in order to upload the contents of the docket, which is significant in size.
Bakamela said the prosecution team had complied with what it had told the court in previous sittings, i.e., that it would provide a charge sheet, and that is would start initiating disclosures of the contents of the docket.
Sindisiwe Seboka, spokesperson for the Investigating Directorate of the National Prosecuting Authority, said afterwards the prosecuting team would not be “deterred by the sideshows” of the defence teams of the accused and that it had “complied with our commitments to present a charge sheet and begin disclosing contents of the docket”.
The former Transnet executives are charged with the contravention of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and fraud, corruption and money laundering related to the parastatal’s procurement of 1 064 locomotives in 2015 worth over R54 billion.
In 2012, Transnet awarded a McKinsey-led consortium a locomotives transaction advisory tender to secure $2.5 billion (equivalent to R30 billion at the time) in funding for the project.
The State alleges that Gupta-linked company, Regiments Capital, was irregularly onboarded and ended up benefitting from the irregular appointment by Transnet in respect of the contract.
The tender value and scope for the services required allegedly later escalated to more than R305 million. The accused also faces charges linked to the R93.4 million paid in 2015 to another Gupta-link company, Trillian Asset Management.