Business Unity of South Africa has welcomed the arrests made by the National Prosecuting Authority involving former Transnet executives.
Ex-group chief executive of Transnet, Brian Molefe, former group chief financial officer Anoj Singh, Regiments Capital directors Niven Pillay and Litha Nyhonhya all appeared in the Palm Ridge Specialised Crimes Court on Monday after their arrest by the NPA’s Investigating Directorate, assisted by the Hawks.
Following the developments, it is now reported that investor confidence is likely to be boosted by the return of the rule of law.
The former Transnet executives and their co-accused are charged with contravention of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and fraud, while the other accused are charged with fraud, corruption, and money laundering.
Speaking to IOL on behalf of BUSA, CEO Cas Coovadia said these arrests demonstrated the government and the criminal justice system.
“These arrests will increase some confidence among investors. The arrests may also signify to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) which is currently considering SA’s listing in the area of handling financial crime, that we are seriously addressing corruption and malfeasance to protect the integrity of our financial sector and business transactions,” Coovadia said.
“This is critical because FATF has expressed serious concern about this and is considering “grey listing” us. Such a listing would be detrimental to our positioning with global financial institutions and would have a disastrous impact on our financial sector.”
Meanwhile, Molefe and his co-accused were granted bail of R50 000 each, with conditions that include handing in their passports and the State also issued warrants of arrest for Salim Essa and Ashok Narayan who are currently out of the country.
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), which submitted a detailed Section 27 referral to the Investigating Directorate in August 2020, also reacted to the high-profile arrests.
Outa’s Rudie Heyneke said their submission had recommended prosecuting at least 17 people, including all nine now arrested, as well as Atul Gupta, his wife Chetali, and Essa.
“Our submission was based on documents including some retrieved from the Gupta leaks from various datasets submitted to Outa, whistle-blower reports, Transnet-related documents submitted to the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, and the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission database,” Heyneke said.
Furthermore, the Investigating Directorate charges that Regiments Capital was irregularly onboarded and ended up benefiting from the irregular appointment by Transnet in respect of the contract.
The contract value and scope for the services required was later escalated to more than R305 million.
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