CRIMINAL CHARGES & REFERRALS 

Since 2016, OUTA has opened various criminal complaints with the police, providing information on alleged crimes and identifying suspects. The intention is to encourage law-enforcement agencies to recognise serious corruption as a crime and pursue these matters, and to provide assistance in this.

Below is a list of these cases.

OUTA has used two types of cases:

The first is opening a criminal complaint or charge with the police at a police station. Most of these matters involved this.

The second is making a referral directly to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), in terms of section 27 of the NPA Act, which allows direct referrals. 

 
The list below was updated in September 2020.

 

Ben Martins: In June 2020, OUTA made a referral about Ben Martins directly to the NPA in terms of section 27 of the NPA Act, which covers serious crimes, and called for an investigation into payments made to Martins who was Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises at the time. The payments were from a business which was run by the Guptas and from the controversial then CEO of PRASA, Lucky Montana.

Dudu Myeni and the SAA board: In July 2019, during the delinquent director case against former SAA chair Dudu Myeni brought by OUTA and the SAA Pilots’ Association, OUTA sent the evidence to the NPA as a section 27 referral against Myeni and her board. The other board members named in the referral were board members Yakhe Kwinana, Phumeza Nhantsi, Dr John Tambi and Musa Zwane. OUTA said Myeni in particular had contravened the Public Finance Management Act and the others had also by either failing to hold her to account or by actively aiding her misconduct. In May 2020, the Pretoria High Court declared Myeni a delinquent director for life, with the court ordering the judgment to be sent to the NPA.

Transnet board: In June 2019, OUTA referred a case against the former Transnet board and officials, and Transnet contractors to the NPA in terms of section 27. The referral implicated 23 people, including Malusi Gigaba, Brian Molefe, Anoj Singh and Siyabonga Gama, in connection with the corrupt deals to buy locomotives for Transnet. A second submission was made to the NPA in October 2019, detailing the money flows of the kickbacks. OUTA has since met with the NPA and provided assistance to international law enforcement agencies on this matter.

Sfiso Buthelezi: Case number 480/10/2017 opened at Randburg SAPS in October 2017 (subsequently moved to Brooklyn SAPS as case 605/10/2017. OUTA laid charges of corruption and fraud against the entire board of the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (PRASA) over the award of the contract to local company Swifambo in March 2013 for the purchase 70 locomotives for about R3.5 billion. The board was at the time chaired by Sfiso Buthelezi, who later went on to be Deputy Minister of Finance, and included then GCEO Lucky Montana, Xolile George, Zanele Gasa, Mfenyana Salanje, Namhla Mxenge, Mawetu Vilana, Marissa Moore, Thulani Gcabashe and Lindikaya Zide. The Swifambo contract wasoverturned by the Johannesburg High Court in July 2017, which was confirmed on appeal a year later. The locomotives delivered were unsuitable for South African railways, Swifambo didn’t have a valid tax clearance, didn’t have any relevant work experience or financial backing and was effectively fronting for Spanish company Vossloh. PRASA had intended to lease the 70 locomotives but ended up buying them. The PRASA board was legally responsible for approving such deals and knew that procurement procedures had not been followed. In October 2018, OUTA made submissions to the Zondo Commission which included information on this matter. Buthelezi is no longer a minister but remains an ANC MP and currently chairs the powerful Standing Committee on Appropriations. During 2020 he was still a member of the ANC NEC.

Matshela Koko: Case number 594/10/2017 opened at Randburg SAPS in October 2017. OUTA laid criminal charges of corruption and fraud against Matshela Koko, the suspended acting CEO of Eskom at the time, over allegations that he helped the Guptas in their acquisition of Optimum Coal Holdings by helping push the mine into financial distress and a forced sale, helped provide Eskom funding for the purchase and accepted a trip to Dubai from the Guptas. OUTA also submitted information on his activities to the Zondo Commission in October 2018. Koko resigned from Eskom in February 2018 just before the start of his disciplinary hearing on serious allegations of misconduct. Koko also faces a share of the R3.8 billion claim in litigation from the SIU filed in August 2020.

Malusi Gigaba and Gideon Christians: Case number 892/09/2017 opened at Brooklyn SAPS in September 2017. OUTA laid criminal charges of treason, corruption, extortion, fraud and theft against the then Minister of Finance Malusi Gigaba and Home Affairs immigration official Gideon Christians. Gigaba, as Minister of Home Affairs, is accused of ordering the deployment of Christians to India, where Christians allegedly helped the Guptas circumvent the law on immigration. OUTA also submitted information on these activities to Parliament’s inquiry into the Guptas’ naturalisation in September 2018 and to the Zondo Commission a month later. Gigaba resigned as minister then days later resigned as an MP after losing a Constitutional Court appeal against a court finding that he lied under oath and the Public Protector then ordered Ramaphosa to take action against him for this. He remains a member of the ANC NEC.

Daniel Mantsha: Case number 771/8/2017 opened at Brooklyn SAPS in August 2017. OUTA laid criminal charges of corruption against Daniel Mantsha, who was chair of Denel at the time and who was accused of taking free trips to India and Dubai from the Guptas, and of using his position to try to set up an ultimately failed deal that would have given the Guptas access to Denel’s business. In 2018, OUTA submitted information to the Zondo Commission on Denel and Mantsha’s role.  Mantsha is no longer at Denel – a state-owned entity still struggling to recover from the state capture years – and has worked at various times as the attorney for former President Jacob Zuma and former SAA chair Dudu Myeni.

Duduzane Zuma and the Guptas: Case number 46/8/2017 opened at Randburg SAPS in August 2017. OUTA laid criminal charges of treason, racketeering, extortion, fraud and forgery against the son of the former president Duduzane Zuma and his business partners brothers Atul, Ajay and Tony Gupta; these are charges designed for combatting organised crime, brought against the group at the centre of the state capture allegations. The Gupta empire has since collapsed and the brothers have fled South Africa.

Brian Molefe and Ben Ngubane: Case number 34/8/2017 opened at Randburg SAPS in August 2017. OUTA laid criminal charges of fraud and financial misconduct against Eskom’s former CE, Brian Molefe, and Ben Ngubane, the utility’s then board chairman, over the attempts to pay Molefe a R30 million pension that he wasn’t entitled to after he resigned from Eskom. OUTA also submitted information on their activities to the Zondo Commission in October 2018. Molefe is remembered as the man who started a national hunt for the mythical “Saxonwold shebeen”. Molefe lost a succession of court cases trying to hold onto his pension; earlier this year the fund was still trying to get the money back. Since leaving Eskom, Molefe failed at various other attempts – as an SANDF officer and as an MP – to be carried by the public purse. Both Molefe and Ngubane were named in the August 2020 Special Investigating Unit (SIU) litigation to reclaim R3.8 billion looted from Eskom.

Anoj Singh: Case number 942/8/2017 opened at Sandton SAPS in August 2017. OUTA laid criminal charges of corruption and financial misconduct against Eskom CFO Anoj Singh, later suspended, because Eskom paid Gupta-linked businesses hundreds of millions of rand, apparently without contracts or any work being done to earn it, and provided a legally dubious R1.6 billion guarantee to a Gupta business. Singh is at the centre of those allegations; even if he was not involved, as CFO, he should have stopped it. OUTA submitted information on his activities to the Zondo Commission in October 2018. In September 2017, OUTA laid a complaint against Singh at the SA Institute of Chartered Accountants and, in August 2020, Singh was finally struck off the roll of chartered accountants in connection with his activities at Transnet and Eskom. Singh faces a share of the R3.8 billion claim in August 2020 in litigation from the SIU.

Mark Pamensky: Case number 330/8/2017 opened at Brooklyn SAPS in August 2017. OUTA laid criminal charges of corruption and breaches of the Companies Act and the Public Finance Management Act against former Eskom director Mark Pamensky, who was a director of both Eskom and at least one company in the Gupta empire at the same time and is accused of passing on information to the Gupta which helped them in their R2.15 billion purchase of Optimum Coal Holdings which supplies Eskom and received substantial help from Eskom in the sale. Pamensky was named in the August 2020 Special Investigating Unit (SIU) litigation to reclaim R3.8 billion looted from Eskom.

Richard Seleke: Case number 578/7/2017 opened at Randburg SAPS in July 2017. OUTA laid criminal charges of treason, corruption, extortion and fraud against Richard Seleke, at the time the Director-General of the Department of Public Enterprises, who was accused of abusing his position on the Transnet board to help set up a secret and illegal deal that resulted in the Guptas’ Tequesta company getting R5.2 billion from China South Rail for setting up the deal to sell locomotives to Transnet, and of passing on information about Denel to the Guptas. In August 2020, OUTA wrote to CRRC Corporation Ltd, the Chinese SOE that now incorporates China South Rail, asking for the return of $284 million looted from Transnet in that deal.

Mosebenzi Zwane: Case number 482/7/2017 opened at Randburg SAPS in July 2017. OUTA laid criminal charges of treason, corruption, extortion, fraud and theft against Mosebenzi Zwane, who was the Minister of Mineral Resource at the time, arising from allegations that he used his position to promote the Vrede dairy project which benefitted the Guptas and cost the state about R184 million, he was a key player in arranging the illegal landing at Waterkloof Air Force Base for the Gupta wedding flight, he helped facilitate the sale of Optimum Coal Holdings to the Guptas, his department later authorised the release of the two related mine rehabilitation funds to the Gupta accounts in the Bank of Baroda, and that the Guptas paid for his trips to Dubai and to India. OUTA has made submissions on Zwane’s activities to various bodies: a complaint to Parliament’s Joint Committee on Ethics and Members Interests in October 2017 (which failed to act), a submission to the Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources in May 2018 (which failed to carry out its promised state capture investigation), a referral to the NPA in terms of section 27 of the NPA Act, and to the Zondo Commission. Zwane was named in the August 2020 Special Investigating Unit (SIU) litigation to reclaim R3.8 billion looted from Eskom. He is no longer a minister but remains an ANC MP and currently chairs Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Transport. He is a member of the ANC NEC.

Faith Muthambi: Case number 223/7/2017 opened at Brixton SAPS in July 2017. OUTA laid criminal charges of treason against Faith Muthambi, the former Minister of Communications and at the time of laying charges the Minister of Public Service and Administration, as #GuptaLeaks documents showed she shared three confidential Cabinet memoranda about government policy on communications with the Guptas and referred to extra powers that “must” be transferred to her. In June 2017, OUTA sent a substantial report on state capture to Parliament which included information on Muthambi. In March 2018, based on this, the Portfolio Committee on Communications referred OUTA’s report to the Joint Committee on Ethics and Members Interests with an instruction to investigate Muthambi’s conduct; however, this committee has failed to do this. In October 2018, OUTA made submissions to the Zondo Commission which included information on Muthambi. She is no longer a minister but remains an ANC MP and currently chairs Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. She is a member of the ANC NEC.

Ben Ngubane and his wife Sheila Ngubane: Case number 159/6/2017 opened at Olifantsfontein SAPS in June 2017. OUTA laid criminal charges against the then Eskom chairman Ben Ngubane and his wife Sheila of fraud, forgery, uttering and contraventions of the Companies Act. They allegedly borrowed R50 million from the state-owned Ithala Development Finance Corporation, used it to buy mineral rights through their business with apparently forged share certificates, failed to repay it and allowed their business to be liquidated.

Hlaudi Motsoeneng: Case number 259/12/2016 opened at Brixton SAPS in December 2016. OUTA filed charges of fraud and misrepresentation against Hlaudi Motsoeneng, then the SABC COO who was appointed by then Communications Minister Muthambi, in connection with his qualifications and the deal he made on behalf of SABC with MultiChoice. This is a man who grimly held onto his job at SABC despite evidence of wrongdoing and even court rulings against him until he was eventually fired in June 2016. In October 2018, OUTA made submissions to the Zondo Commission which included information on Motsoeneng. He started his own political party for last year’s elections but didn’t get enough votes to get even half a seat.

Nazir Ali: Case number 2041/12/2016 opened at Linden SAPS in December 2016. OUTA laid charges of perjury against Nazir Ali, the former SANRAL CEO. The charge arises out of the sworn statement he made in the dispute between the City of Cape Town and SANRAL, in which he declared in a sworn statement that the SANRAL board had passed a resolution in 2004 to declare sections of the N1 and N2 in the Western Cape as toll roads. However, he could not produce minutes of the board meeting to prove that the any such resolution was taken prior to the 2008 gazetting of the roads as toll roads.

Daniel Mahlangu: Case number 125/9/2016 opened at OR Tambo International Airport SAPS in September 2016. OUTA laid criminal charges against Daniel Mahlangu, at the time the sole director and shareholder of BnP Capital, which tried to get R256 million from SAA as a loan broker, then tried for a R50 million washout fee, with the help of then SAA chair Dudu Myeni. OUTA blocked this deal at the time and SAA was obliged to cancel it. Mahlangu’s legally required financial services licence had been suspended at the time of the deals. Myeni has since been declared a delinquent director for life as a result of OUTA legal action.



In October 2019, President Cyril Ramaphosa told international investors that state capture has probably cost South Africa more than R500 billion.

Join us and make South Africa better.