More than a decade after the dodgy locomotive deal, four former senior Transnet executives — Brian Molefe, Siyabonga Gama, Anoj Singh and Thamsanqa Jiyane — have been arrested for allegedly siphoning R93m through Trillian Capital. All four were granted bail by the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
Former Transnet bosses Brian Molefe and Siyabonga Gama — long seen as State Capture architects — handed themselves over to the Investigating Directorate for Corruption (Idac) on Monday morning.
The pair — now sitting MPs for Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party — are expected to appear in the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court on fraud, corruption and money laundering charges directly tied to the wider Transnet locomotives corruption scandal that formed one of the core chapters of the Zondo Commission’s State Capture reports.
Backstory: the locomotive deal symbolic of an era
Under Jacob Zuma’s presidency, Molefe was appointed CEO of Transnet in 2011 with a mandate to oversee a massive rail expansion plan. In May 2015, a transaction advisory contract for 1,064 new locomotives — one of the single biggest procurement deals in South African state-owned enterprises history — was awarded to JP Morgan but soon cancelled amid internal battles and reassigned to Trillian Capital, a Gupta-linked firm.
By December 2015, Transnet paid Trillian R93.4-million, signed off by CFO Garry Pita and then-CEO Gama. Three days later, R74-million was quietly rerouted — a diversion that Justice Zondo’s report flagged as a key laundering step in the wider locomotives corruption scheme.
Today, the long train of justice is inching back into court. Idac spokesperson Henry Mamothame confirmed their arrests to Daily Maverick, noting that a broader press release would be issued after the two had appeared in court.
Zondo Commission: findings
The Zondo Commission named Molefe as a “primary architect” of Transnet’s State Capture phase, finding he misled the board, suppressed oversight, and signed off on contracts that enabled Gupta proxies to loot through Regiments and Trillian.
It also explicitly linked this R93-million payment to the bigger locomotives procurement fraud, and recommended that Molefe, Gama and others be prosecuted to break what it called the “cycle of impunity” that allowed grand corruption to thrive unchecked.
The politics of public money
Their arrests put the MK party under an uncomfortable spotlight. MK party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela had not responded to calls or questions from Daily Maverick by the time of publication.
The locomotives procurement cost jumped from R38-billion to more than R50-billion — billions that the public purse absorbed through Transnet’s balance sheet while oversight bodies looked the other way.
Nearly a decade later, the question is whether those billions can ever be clawed back.
What’s waiting at the next stop?
The Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court has set bail for each of the accused at R50,000 which the NPA is not opposing.
The real test now shifts to the National Prosecuting Authority, which must prove it can go beyond headlines to hold to account the powerful networks that, for years, treated Transnet and other SOEs as private cash reserves.
Whether this case holds or slips into endless legal limbo will show just how much willpower is left to turn the Zondo Commission’s recommendations into real consequences.
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