Companies / Transport & Tourism Transnet overpaid R509m in train deal BL PREMIUM

Transnet paid R509m more than it needed to on one train deal alone awarded to a Chinese rail company that paid large suspected kickbacks to the Guptas. The deal also resulted in a large proportion of the locomotives being imported from China rather than being manufactured locally. This emerges from an explosive draft report commissioned by the Treasury into looting at Transnet and Eskom by the Guptas and their allies. The draft report by Fundudzi Forensic Services, which Business Day has obtained, investigated three rail contracts worth a total of R25.2bn awarded irregularly to China South Rail (CSR). The first deal for 95 locomotives was worth R2.7bn. For the second contract for 100 locomotives, the company was paid R4.4bn and for the third, to supply 359 out of a total of 1,064 locomotives, it was paid R18.1bn. Documents contained in the Gupta leaks showed the company had earmarked suspected kickbacks for the Transnet deals totalling R5.3bn to be paid to various Gupta-linked entit...