A letter leaked to the media accusing top Transnet executive Macozoma of theft has proved false, reports Ann Eveleth
Suspended Transnet executive director Joe Ndhlela’s allegation linking the transport parastatal’s managing director, Saki Makozoma, to the theft of containers from the Port of Durban are false, according to police and justice officials.
Ndhlela’s lawyers leaked the allegation to the media last week after his suspension pending an investigation into his alleged misconduct. In a “private, personal and confidential” letter addressed to Transnet chair Louise Tager but faxed to the Mail & Guardian and other media, Ndhlela’s lawyer claimed Saki Macozoma suspended him to thwart a criminal investigation implicating Macozoma.
The letter also claimed the information had “been handed to the police as well as the attorney general’s office”.
But the Durban police commercial crimes unit director, Margaret Kruger, this week denied her unit was probing the matter: “I received some very scant information in June or July, but then one of the suspended business information services department [BISD] members took it back from me. There was no mention of Macozoma and the information was so scant I could not have used it,” she said.
Superintendent Prize Phahla of Durban’s truck theft unit, Director Cornelius McDuling of Durban’s border policing unit, Senior Superintendent Piet Meyer of KwaZulu-Natal’s organised crime unit and Senior Superintendent Beyers Marx of Durban’s anti-corruption unit – the only police units also tasked to investigate port container theft or related fraud – said no investigation into this allegation had been handed to them by the BISD or implicated Macozoma.
KwaZulu-Natal Attorney General Tim McNally’s office also denied it had received a docket on the matter.
Transnet’s chief representative, Kallie Mabanstela, rejected Ndhlela’s claims that the information was “known to” Macozoma and Tager.
This was despite claims by Ndhlela’s attorney, Daan Mostert, that imminent arrests had been averted by Ndhlela’s suspension – and that BISD had paid out R1,2-million in decoy payments related to the alleged probe.
Ndhlela controlled BISD, the mysterious Transnet unit he formed last year and which he claims had carried out the investigation, code-named “Operation Red Heat”, which allegedly implicated Macozoma.
Mabanstela refused to be drawn on the reasons for Ndhlela’s suspension – or on whether Ndhlela’s counter-allegations would constitute misconduct – arguing that the parastatal would “not be diverted from the proper procedures”.
But widespread speculation has suggested that at least some of the misconduct charges being compiled against Ndhlela relate to the activities of the BISD.
Two other members of the department – former military intelligence Lieutenant- Colonel Jan Holiday and ex-Umkhonto weSizwe operative Felix Ngwenya – have also been suspended.
Portnet employees told the M&G in February that they believed BISD was involved in bugging their offices in Durban. The allegations followed a visit to the port by Ngwenya, which elicited questions from Portnet chief executive officer Ivor Funnel.
Funnel said this week that was the only occasion when he had had any dealings with the department that now claims to have conducted a major investigation into his area of operation.
A private Durban de-bugging expert, Mike Mitten of Surveillance Inc, has confirmed that his company was called to attend to seven de-bugging requests from individuals – including managers – in Port of Durban offices last year.
“On four occasions we found something. Bugging is illegal, but it’s common practice in Portnet and Transnet and all the parastatals. The old guys don’t want to come out and the new guys want to get in,” he said.
Mabanstela confirmed that Transnet had swept its Johannesburg headquarters for bugs last month following similar allegations, but found nothing at the time.
He would not, however, answer questions about the formation, mandate, role, size or budget of BISD until the investigation against Ndhlela, Holiday and Ngwenya is completed, possibly this month.
Mabanstela also declined to comment on insider allegations that Ndhlela had had his sights on the managing director’s post prior to Macozoma’s appointment. When asked why he had not handed an investigation involving his superior to the police, Ndhlela’s lawyers responded: “What makes Macozoma his superior?”
Ndhlela’s lawyers claimed that the “formation of BIS[D] and its activities are legitimate company operations approved by the executive committee of Transnet and ratified by the board of directors”.
But Ndhlela’s critics inside and outside the parastatal say the department has served as a covert surveillance unit targeting “change agents”, tasked with transforming the parastatal.
They point to Ndhlela’s involvement in the inquiry which led to Transnet sacking its first black executive director, Sipho Nyawo, amid credit-card abuse charges last year. He was also connected to the “Oesche investigation” into Spoornet security contracts.
Transnet is a prime target for the African National Congress’s attempts to effect a Malaysian-style economic transformation. This entails an aggressive affirmative action policy, the promotion of contracts with black-owned companies, and streamlining the institution’s role and functions to underpin new economic priorities.
To jump-start this process, the ANC deployed a handful of “change agents” to Transnet, but some of these argue they have faced a wall of opposition from the “old guard” – and some of its new black allies – which have retained power over a number of key positions in the institution.
Mabanstela, however, denied the parastatal’s transformation had been held to ransom, arguing it had changed more rapidly than other public enterprises in the country. “If anybody is trying to cling to something that will prevent us from going forward, they will have no future at Transnet,” he said.