Dirty Money

The Zondo Commission found that Eskom's R659-million prepayment to the Gupta-owned Tegeta in April 2016, and an earlier R1.68-billion guarantee, were not made to further Eskom's interests and secured commercial benefit only for Tegeta, which was buying Optimum Coal Mine for R2.15 billion. It recommended that Eskom executives be prosecuted. See the Guptas entry.

A High Court declared Eskom's payments to the Gupta-linked Trillian Capital unlawful and invalid and ordered R595,228,913.29 repaid, with interest.

Operationally the utility has recovered: there has been no load-shedding since 16 May 2025. Its debt remains so large that the 2023 Budget committed R254 billion in conditional relief.

In 2014 Transnet contracted to buy 1,064 locomotives. The estimated cost of R38.6 billion was revised to R54.5 billion weeks after the contracts were signed, and Transnet made an upfront payment of R7.37 billion. The Zondo Commission found the increase was based on misrepresentations by senior executives and was to Transnet's detriment; Transnet and the Special Investigating Unit went to court to have the contracts set aside.

Of the R49 billion in state spending that forensic researcher Paul Holden told the commission was tainted by Gupta-linked capture, R40.08 billion was Transnet's.

Former Transnet executives Brian Molefe and Anoj Singh, former minister Malusi Gigaba and others face trial in the locomotive matter; the next appearance is on 23 October 2026. See Molefe and Singh.

An earlier version of this page described "1,064 Gupta-linked contracts" and "R54.5bn in irregular expenditure" — 1,064 was the number of locomotives and R54.5bn the price of the deal.

PRASA awarded Swifambo Rail Agency a R3.5-billion contract for 70 Afro4000 locomotives for long-distance passenger services. The first deliveries were found to be too tall for parts of the network; 13 arrived. In July 2017 the Johannesburg High Court set the contract aside, finding it had been awarded through a "corrupt tender process" and that Swifambo was a front for the Spanish manufacturer Vossloh España. In November 2018 the Supreme Court of Appeal ordered Swifambo to repay R2.6 billion, and in May 2019 the Constitutional Court refused Swifambo leave to appeal.

For 2024/25 the Auditor-General recorded about R19 billion in accumulated irregular and fruitless expenditure at PRASA, much of it linked to two signalling contracts.

The Zondo Commission found that the capture of the state arms manufacturer from 2014 was deliberate and intended to enrich the Guptas, and that the entry of Salim Essa and the Guptas into VR Laser was conceived as a vehicle for it. It found that a board appointed under Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown in September 2015 moved to neutralise executives who stood in the way, that VR Laser was irregularly awarded three contracts between 2014 and 2016, and that the proposed Denel Asia joint venture in India was designed to make the family money. It recommended that law enforcement investigate the VR Laser contracts for breaches of the Public Finance Management Act.

In May 2020, in a case brought by OUTA and the SA Airways Pilots' Association, the Pretoria High Court declared former SAA chair Dudu Myeni a delinquent director for life. Judge Ronel Tolmay found she had acted dishonestly, recklessly and with gross negligence, and that she was "not a fit and proper person to be appointed as a director of any company, let alone a State-owned enterprise."

SAA went into business rescue in December 2019 and exited on 30 April 2021, having received R10.5 billion of the R14 billion its rescue plan required. It was restructured, not liquidated.

The state's agricultural development bank defaulted on its debt in April 2020. Government recapitalised it with R10 billion — R3 billion transferred in 2020 and R7 billion made conditional on a settlement with lenders. A debt restructuring with all its lenders took effect on 16 September 2024, ending the default.

In business rescue since July 2023, with thousands of retrenchments and widespread branch closures. Its management says its viability after the rescue depends on government funding.

In December 2024 McKinsey & Company Africa entered a deferred prosecution agreement with the US Justice Department, paying more than $122 million to resolve a charge of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by bribing officials at Transnet and Eskom between 2012 and 2016. Former partner Vikas Sagar pleaded guilty. Up to half the payment is to be credited toward a resolution with South Africa's NPA.

It repaid R902 million to Eskom in 2018 and in December 2020 undertook to repay R650 million from Transnet and SAA work. An earlier version of this page said it repaid R1.1 billion to Eskom in 2019 and faced no criminal consequences.

The Nugent Commission described what happened at SARS under Tom Moyane as "a premeditated offensive against SARS, strategised by the local office of Bain & Company". Bain repaid R217 million in fees and interest in 2018. In September 2022 National Treasury banned it from public-sector contracts until 4 September 2032, and it later closed its South African consulting business. See Moyane.

A company linked to Gupta associate Salim Essa. The Pretoria High Court declared Eskom's payments to Trillian unlawful and invalid and ordered it to repay R595,228,913.29 with interest. When the money was not paid, Eskom sought to have Trillian's sole director, Eric Wood, fined or jailed for contempt, and applied for the company's liquidation.

In January 2019 former chief operations officer Angelo Agrizzi told the Zondo Commission that Bosasa spent R4 million to R6 million a month in cash bribes. In March 2022 the commission found that Bosasa paid bribes to win state contracts, including paying for security upgrades at the homes of Gwede Mantashe and former water minister Nomvula Mokonyane, and found "no lawful authority" for Mantashe's upgrades. It recommended that law enforcement investigate Jacob Zuma, Mantashe and Mokonyane with a view to prosecution on corruption charges.

This site has found no report of charges against any of the three arising from those recommendations. CEO Gavin Watson died in August 2019 — see Beyond Government. An earlier version of this page gave Mokonyane and Mantashe ANC offices they did not hold at the time.

After Microsoft ended its partner agreements with the JSE-listed IT group over a R120-million Department of Defence contract awarded to subsidiary EOH Mthombo, EOH commissioned a forensic investigation by ENSafrica. It flagged suspect transactions of R1.2 billion, later revised to R935 million: R665 million with no valid contract or no work done, R90 million in loans written off, and about R180 million in overbilling. Defence Microsoft-licence contracts in 2016 and 2017 were inflated by more than R40 million. EOH blacklisted 50 enterprise-development partners, and staff were referred for criminal charges.

An earlier version of this page said EOH resold licences at ten times their price and named the wrong executive as CEO; neither is supported.

Iqbal Survé's Sekunjalo consortium bought Independent News & Media SA in 2013 with a R1.3-billion loan from the Public Investment Corporation; R888 million was outstanding in 2019. Separately, in 2017 the PIC paid R4.3 billion for a stake in his Ayo Technology. An earlier version of this page said the R4.3 billion was borrowed to buy the newspapers. In October 2024 the Press Council expelled Independent Media for refusing to obey its rulings. See Spin Room.