‘Only the Zuptas now keeping Molefe out of jail’

Taking to Facebook on Monday afternoon, veteran politics and business reporter Alec Hogg commented on the latest scandal to allegedly envelop former Transnet and Eskom CEO Brian Molefe.

Hogg republished a News24 exposé on his website, BizNews, looking into the latest disaster to befall Transnet – which Molefe ran before moving to Eskom.

Molefe has been fingered for placing the “largest ever order for locomotives” in South Africa’s history, and he reportedly opted for the supplier to be China’s state-owned rail company.

The order was worth billions.

According to the report, Molefe’s giant tender of more than R50 billion was split between four international original equipment manufacturers for more than 1 000 locomotives, more than half of which went to two Chinese companies that merged into the CRRC Corporation, China’s state-owned rail giant.

The Sunday Times revealed allegations last year that the controversial Gupta family, along with President Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane tried to “capture” Prasa and profit off what was said to be the biggest tender in South Africa’s history.

The paper claimed to have seen a letter that evidenced how the family and Duduzane Zuma had “schemed” to grab the R51 billion train tender for their bidder, China South Rail. The tender had been to supply the parastatal with 600 commuter trains.

The Guptas and Duduzane Zuma allegedly wanted then transport minister Ben Martins to restructure the Prasa board.

The Gupta family spokesperson and Oakbay company CEO at the time, Nazeem Howa, responded that the Sunday Times was “confused”. He claimed the Guptas had “no links with China South Rail whatsoever”.

He maintained the Gupta family had actually been talking to a completely different Chinese company about a high-speed rail system between Durban and Joburg.

“There, we were a little involved and there were some questions asked about us in 2011 by the Mail & Guardian,” he admitted.

Whatever their links may be to the Guptas, when the locomotives arrived in August last year, News24 has now reported that they were duds and Transnet could not use them as there were allegedly huge problems with their alternators, which “vibrate excessively”. The parastatal is now also reportedly refusing to accept more locomotives from China.

Transnet, however, told News24 that they were still confident the problems could be ironed out. A Transnet team is apparently due to travel to China next month to see if the alternator problem can be fixed.

A senior manager at Transnet told News24 the vibrating alternators were part of the early-stage problems for such a problem and were to be expected, but three sources said that the project was already past its prototype phase, and this problem should not have been happening.

They said the vibration was a major issue, while one source alleged the Chinese had tried to cut costs and make the alternators themselves instead of procuring them from Switzerland, as they allegedly should have.

Alec Hogg. Picture: Moneyweb

Hogg has now alleged on Facebook that Molefe should be imprisoned for his role in these scandals. He claims Molefe was “poised to become SA’s next Minister of Finance” due to his loyalty to the “Zuptas”, but blew this opportunity by “breaking down in an Eskom press conference and bumbling incoherently about visiting a non-existent shebeen in Saxonwold“.

Molefe subsequently resigned from Eskom long before his contracted term was up following a damning report into his Gupta links written by the then outgoing public protector, Thuli Madonsela.

Hogg now alleges that the Guptas have a “stranglehold” on the police force and this is now the “only thing keeping Molefe out of jail”.

Hogg has accused Molefe of working with “Gupta board appointees and executing dodgy deals involving hundreds of millions of rand”.

“But his move to the dark side began at Transnet, when substantial contracts with the parastatal were ‘facilitated’ through a Gupta front which raked off a 10% fee,” alleges Hogg.