By Lesedi Sibiya-Diplomatic Insider 

Brian Molefe who is the former Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of Transnet appeared at The Palm Ridge Specialised Crime Court for fraudulent charges along with his cohorts Anoj Singh who was the former Group Chief Financial Officer(GCFO) Siyabonga Gama former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Thamsanqa Jiyane former Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) but their case was postponed to 06 October 2025. 

“What the motive is behind this, I don’t know…the evidence is very weak, they say corruption and fraud, but charge 1 and 3 is PFMA, the company’s act, and now fraud to spice it up. Ms Batohi is under pressure and had to effect these arrests, charge sheets was done in a hurry, even amended by hand writing. They said they’re not ready with evidence; so why did they arrest us?” said Molefe in a briefing with eNCA. 

The four conspirators were granted bail of R50,000 each with certain constrained conditions attached. They are faced with 18 charges which include the Contravention of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), fraud, corruption and the Contravention of the Companies Act. In 2011 Transnet had strategic plans to create capacity which would give a rise to their Market Demand Strategy (MDS). 

The aim of this strategy was to expand and modernise the country’s port, rail and pipeline infrastructure over a seven year period, with a focus of capturing rail-friendly freight from road to rail. In the process of acquiring locomotives to expand and modernize South Africa’s rail infrastructure, the accused allegedly flouted the tender process by appointing an unqualified Chinese company (CSR) to provide the 95 locomotives. Due processes were not followed in order to give CSR the advantage which resulted in a bid of over R3,2 billion was inflated as well as allegedly exceeding its contract value by over R231 billion which ultimately resulted in a payment of R3,4 billion.

There were two other bids which related to the acquisition of 100 and then 1064 locomotives were procured again with CSR due to the alleged flouting process by the accused. These 100 locomotives cost R3.8 billion which was inflated to R4.8 million and the 1064 locomotives which originally cost R38,1 billion had been inflated to R54 billion. 

Transnet which is a State Owned entity was at the helm of these four accused executives. They had the duty to perform the correct due diligence and were meant to ensure that Transnet receives value for its money.  Instead they made sure that their preferred bidder was unethically advantaged as well as allegedly enabling and ensuring that these costs were inflated. This is regarded as a state capture matter as billions were looted from Transnet during the State Capture Commission hearings. The billions of rands that were allocated were not used for rail modernisation projects. 

The accused are set to appear at The Palm Ridge Commercial Crime Court on 6 October 2025.