Transnet

2023 - 3 - 13

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Image courtesy of "Daily Maverick"

Follow the money: The directors who flushed Transnet's cash (Daily Maverick)

Transnet is struggling. The embattled freight railway and ports company — owned by the South African state — has faced corruption, setbacks and delays that ...

Almenta 214 and MJG Investments are two other companies referenced in the ICM bank statement with regard to payments which were made on the same dates Chipkin, Angel, Shane and others were referenced. Shane’s co-directors at ICM, Clive Angel and Marc Chipkin, are also linked to payments that ICM made nine days after it received the laundered R9.3-million from BEX. Details in ICM’s bank statements indicate that some payments referencing companies related to ICM’s directors were made on the same dates each month over five months between November 2015 and March 2016. According to CIPC records, the company is in the process of being deregistered. Evidence suggests that in addition to payments referencing companies linked to its directors, ICM also splurged more than R140,000 at British Airways and on luxury accommodation. Antares isn’t the only company linked to Shane which was referenced in ICM’s bank statement. The BADC was established in 2011 to allow the Transnet board to have input on procurement matters, and rapidly became empowered to conclude huge procurement deals. According to company records, Antares Capital — a corporate finance firm based in Centurion — was registered in 2013, with Shane and ICM director Clive Angel coming on as directors in 2014. Businessman Emanuel Arbib joined the company as a non-executive director in 2015 and resigned in 2016. At the time, the consortium was contracted to provide services to Transnet, and Stanley Shane was a director on Transnet’s board. The Zondo Commission said that BEX laundered R9.3-million of the kickbacks it received to ICM in November 2015 through two shelf companies: Block Mania and Green Blossom. It is significant, however, that five of the six companies which are referenced in transactions in ICM’s bank statement shortly after the R9.3-million was laundered have direct links to either Shane, Chipkin or Angel.

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Image courtesy of "Mining MX"

Hot Seat: Transnet's 'Iron Lady', Portia Derby not for turning - Miningmx (Mining MX)

Instead of this drastic action, the industry and the mining sector decided to form four work streams focused on each of iron ore, chrome, manganese and coal to ...

Derby was appointed group CEO of Transnet in January 2020. In January it emerged that the Minerals Council had demanded Transnet’s board take action by sacking Derby and Sizakele Mzimela, the CEO of Transnet Freight Rail, the division directly responsible for bulk mineral transport. The rest of the private sector was scared off by the restrictive terms of sale, which offered only a two-year lease period.

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Image courtesy of "Daily Maverick"

ICM Files: Stanley Shane — The captured Transnet director (Daily Maverick)

At the height of Transnet corruption, a central figure played a critical role in helping the Guptas loot the state-owned ports and freight railway agency.

He’s listed as a director of two companies in the UK, according to Companies House, the company records-keeper in the country. The Treasury concluded its investigation in July 2017 and found that Transnet must award the tender to Gijima. In addition, the Zondo Commission found there was a “clear conflict of interest” in Regiments managing funds for the TSDBF while executing the interest rate swaps on behalf of Transnet. Shane was an integral part of the Gupta machine that helped Regiments and Wood gain access to the fund’s coffers. Shane denied this in a responding affidavit, saying it was the board of the fund who had final approval. To execute the swap, a third party takes on the risk of the fluctuating rate of interest on the loan, while Transnet is responsible for paying a higher, but fixed, interest rate. At the time, Shane was a Transnet director, and his involvement in providing feedback on a Trillian proposal without the Transnet board shows a significant conflict of interest. [appointed ](https://pmg.org.za/committee-question/3103/)to the Transnet board. However, the swap led the pension fund to sack Regiments in September 2016 after it emerged that the company had [irregular contracts](https://www.opensecrets.org.za/unaccountable-00036-t-systems/) were awarded to companies linked to his associates in the Gupta network. Despite the need of the fund to support vulnerable people, it became a key site of capture at the SOE while Shane was its chairperson. At the height of corruption at Transnet, a central figure played a critical role in helping the Guptas to loot the state-owned ports and freight railway agency.

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