“Zondo exposed: What the Commission did not want SA to know” – Part 1
https://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/news/zondo-exposed-what-the-commission-did-not-want-sa-to-know-e51f14c1-6c90-411f-aa68-a315ed0d6dc9
TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2023
Johannesburg - An explosive affidavit that turned the state capture narrative on its head never made it to the final report of the state capture commission of inquiry or was even considered by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.
The damning contents may explain why Iqbal Sharma, widely regarded as a Gupta lieutenant, never appeared before the state capture commission of inquiry. No findings were made against him either. The commission's lead investigator had received the almost 1000-page affidavit with concrete evidence attached. However, none of the Zondo commission reports covered the document.
The document implicates President Cyril Ramaphosa, Thuli Madonsela, Maria Ramos and Transnet board members from 2006/7, Trevor Manuel, Pravin Gordhan, Gill Marcus, Moira Moses, Mafika Mkhwanazi, the late Don Mkhwanazi and SA Shipyards, Doris Tshepe, Brian Joffe and the 2006/7 Bidvest board, Sybrand Pretorious, Pradeep Maharaj, and Chris Wells.
The document has since landed in the public domain as part of Sharma's defence of fraud charges in the Bloemfontein high court. As Sharma alleged, Transnet favoured one company to win tenders, Bidvest and Transnet may have committed fraud, and Transnet and the Public Protector's office conspired to squash and not implement the forensic report initiated by Madonsela.
He was Transnet's director from December 2010 to October 2014. He served on the Board Acquisitions and Disposals Committee (BADC) and the Corporate Governance Committee. In August 2012, he became head of the BADC.
"In the course of my work as a Director, my colleagues and I came across certain matters of impropriety and malfeasance that needed further investigation. We also came across matters which could be loosely described as 'cover-ups'," Sharma told the Zondo commission.
Sharma covered three Transnet transactions in his affidavit, namely the Tugboat tender, Viamax disposal, and the Public Protector/KPMG investigation.
“Though I was invited then ignored in respect of having an opportunity to support the Commission in its efforts, I stand ready, willing and able to assist with my disclosures about my time at Transnet," he said.
THE BIDVEST MASTERCLASS IN RENT-SEEKING
Sharma said that Transnet sold assets to Bidvest for R1bn and purchased the same services back from Bidvest for R2,5bn. The 2007 transaction involved Transnet's disposal of an entity called Viamax to Bidvest, at the time chaired by Ramaphosa. Viamax managed Transnet's fleet of vehicles.
The deal, signed under Ramos, was announced in March 2007. It later turned out that Bidvest had also secured the exclusive right to manage Transnet's fleet for five years as part of the agreement.
According to Sharma, the additional sweetener was never put to tender or offered to other bidders during disposal. He said Transnet circumvented the public finance management act by giving the appearance that Viamax ceded the fleet service management contract to Bidvest as part of the share acquisition.
"A disposal is a single transaction and procurement of services is a separate and distinctly different transaction within organs of State. Bidvest managed to get a 5-year contract that had never been tendered and potentially locked them in for up to 12 years. This necessitated a further investigation as to how Transnet could be so prejudiced," he said.
Both agreements were signed on the same day in July 2007. Sharma added that in 2011, Transnet executives presented a set of contracts to the BADC that would expire in 2012 and had to be tendered. There was a new tender for fleet services worth around R3 billion. Information that 'only a small portion of the total budgeted spend could be tendered as the incumbent was locked in,' did not make sense to him, and he started asking more questions, he said.