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Former Transnet CEO Brian Molefe told the state capture commission that he received a recommendation from his legal team and approved it.
A screenshot of former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe who appeared in the state capture investigation on March 2, 2021. Image: SABC / YouTube
JOHANNESBURG – Former Transnet CEO Brian Molefe said he did not know why Siyabonga Gama received 17 million rand in legal costs when he lost a court offer challenging his dismissal.
Molefe told the state capture commission that he received a recommendation from his legal team and approved it.
Gama had been fired for gross misconduct after defying a board directive and awarding a R800 million contract to restore locomotives to an international manufacturer despite strict instructions from the board for the work to be done by the railway engineering division. from Transnet.
But, Gama concluded a contract with a foreign manufacturer that had to establish new operations.
The former head of legal affairs, Siyabulela Mapoma, told the commission that Transnet had a good case against Gama, but that the chairman of the board, Siyabulela Mkhwanazi, decided to reach an agreement.
Molefe said he just signed.
“If you look at the president’s recommendation, he says: ‘Based on the above motivation, I recommend that the contribution to legal fees be paid according to the agreement. So there was nothing to argue about whether it was in fact because of the settlement agreement. ”
Molefe also said that it did not know that Salim Essa’s wife was a director of a company to which Transnet assigned a supplier contract.
The state capture commission heard that Essa’s wife, Zeenat Osmany, was a director of Zestilor, one of the companies that benefited from her contracts.
Essa was a partner of the Gupta brothers.
“President, if it was indeed happening, it worries me,” said the former Transnet chief executive.
Molefe admits that there were things he didn’t know were happening.
Attorney Anton Myburgh said: “It appears that the corruption was within the organization. How many times have we referred to Mr. Essa? “
Molefe said he realized there was corruption with Transnet.
“It is many times; T-Systems is contracting with a party that Mr. Essa is a contractor, you are assigning a contract in which Mr. Essa’s wife is a director, ”continued Attorney Myburgh.
In other cases, Molefe stepped in to switch McKinsey’s partner from Letsema to Regiments and revoked an IT contract awarded to Neotel and handed it over to T-Systems.
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