Lerato Makenete and Hawkins Madubane, two former Transnet administrators, appeared before the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Tuesday.
They are facing allegations of defrauding the state-owned entity (SOE) of about R34-million during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The two face charges of theft, fraud, and money laundering. They were released on R10,000 bail each.
They appeared together with two service providers, Jacob Malusi Ramoyadi and Kenneth Rikhotso. The service providers represent their businesses: Ramoyadi Air Conditioning and Electrical and Ndzalo 2 Trading. They were present with the two Transnet accused in court.
According to Transnet, Makenete and Madubane were responsible for safety, disaster management, and group business continuity at the company.
Used non-qualified trading companies
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane gave details on the matter. She said the state alleges that the duo conspired with Ramoyadi, Ramoyadi Air Conditioning, Rikhotso and Ndzalo 2 Trading to supply more than a million disposable breathalyser straws at an inflated price.
“The original price per straw was 29c but Transnet was charged R29.99 per straw. This resulted in a payment of R33.8-million,” said Mjonondwane.
Transnet had determined that they needed to obtain the straws for use in breathalysers. This through their task force, which was established in 2020 to coordinate their activities in response to the Covid-19 epidemic.
Transnet employees are required to undergo breathalysing before beginning each shift because of the nature of their work, which involves operating trains.
“It had become apparent to the task team that the use of Alcoblow breathalysers posed a risk. The risk was for the spread of the coronavirus. And …this was due to the dispersion of droplets when a person blows into the machine.
Transnet should procure straws to be used with the breathalysers
“The use of plastic straws on the breathalysers was found to be effective in limiting the dispersion of droplets. And thus a decision was taken that Transnet should procure straws to be used with the breathalysers.”
None of the businesses associated with all of the accused had ever conducted business in the medical industry. Neither had they registered as suppliers of medical supplies. Despite this, they were allegedly loaded onto Transnet’s central suppliers database.
The businesses were categorised as those that provided construction, gas, power, air conditioning, lodging, and food services.
According to Mjonondwane, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) was able to get an order in October of last year. The order stopped the two Transnet workers from taking their pension payments out of the Transnet Retirement Fund.
The case was put on hold until September 4 in order to make the docket’s contents public.
