Two Cabinet ministers, a deputy minister and National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete have shares in the consortium that is building the Gautrain, according to the Sunday Times.
The shareholding structure in the Bombela Consortium, which won the R23-billion bid to construct the high-speed train linking Pretoria and Johannesburg, has been a closely guarded secret, but the Sunday Times reported that Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Mapisa- Nqakula, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor and Deputy Minister of Health Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge stand to benefit from the project.
Mapisa-Nqakula and Pandor sat in a Cabinet meeting that approved the project in December last year against the advice of Parliament’s portfolio committee on transport.
Mapisa-Nqakula and Mbete have shares in Dyambu Holdings, while Pandor is involved in Black Management Forum Investments (BMFI). Both companies and 11 others have a 25% stake — worth R5-billion — in the Gautrain through Strategic Partners Group, which is the empowerment partner in Bombela, the Sunday Times said.
Barbara Jensen, spokesperson for the Gautrain project, denied that Dyambu had any shares in it.
“On the basis of information supplied by Bombela to the Gautrain project team and which was confirmed by the Gautrain political committee, nothing indicated the shareholding of Dyambu Holdings,” Jensen said.
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