Deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo is shocked that Transnet under Brian Molefe's tenure as chief executive spent R24.8m for advertising space in the Gupta family's The New Age newspaper on something that had “nothing to do with Transnet”.

The former internal specialist for communication at Transnet, Frank Jackson, testified at the state capture inquiry on Friday that Transnet spent millions on adverts in the newspaper called “Transnet: The big interview”, but none of the subjects interviewed worked at the state-owned company.

The payments to the newspaper were classified as “sponsorship” by Transnet's corporate affairs head Mboniso Siqonyela, who concluded the deal.

The deal was initially meant to run for six months but ended up lasting for years.

The person who kept renewing the sponsorship, said Jackson, was Molefe.