Speaker 1: Seven oh two drivers eighteen minutes past three. Let's pick
Speaker 1: up then on a story that's been leading the news
Speaker 1: for much of today, the appearance of four former trans
Speaker 1: Net members in court charged with fraud and offences under
Speaker 1: the Public Finance Management Actors possible. I've missed on some
Speaker 1: of the charges as well, but the names are well known.
Speaker 1: They have come up in various newspaper reports, various investigations
Speaker 1: by Gupta leaks and others, and of course at the
Speaker 1: Zondor Commission. Brian Mulifa, Siabonga Gama, Anaj Singh and Tom
Speaker 1: sank Giani the four people appearing. Our EWN reporter colleague
Speaker 1: Alfa Ramashwana was there and joins us now Alpha, very
Speaker 1: good afternoon to you. Bell was asked for Bell was granted.
Speaker 1: Update us on the details of that.
Speaker 2: Please good afternoon, John, Yes, and Brian relief. It's some
Speaker 2: song like Kan and anod Sting, all of who were
Speaker 2: executives that Transnet appeared at the Palmaries Magistrate's quote today.
Speaker 2: They were arrested earlier this morning and appeared on the
Speaker 2: same day and they were granted bail off about fifty
Speaker 2: thousand rand in just for context about the contract and
Speaker 2: the allegations here John. In twenty fifteen, according to the State,
Speaker 2: a transaction advisory contract for one thousand and sixty four
Speaker 2: locomotives was awarded to a company called JP Morgan, but
Speaker 2: that's awarding of that contract was canceled and reversed and
Speaker 2: instead awarded to a company linked to the Gupta family.
Speaker 2: And a few months later a ninety three million Rand
Speaker 2: payment was made to that company that was award that
Speaker 2: is linked to the Groupta family, and another seventy four
Speaker 2: million Rand left that company's account, it's understood to one
Speaker 2: of the accounts of the people in the Gupta family
Speaker 2: and the state is this is direct money laundering. It's
Speaker 2: an abuse of the state state funds. And you remember
Speaker 2: that all of these people are also facing similar charges
Speaker 2: in a separate corruption case that has to do with
Speaker 2: LOCOMOTIVESA Brian Mulief, Tamsung Machiani or are not sing as well?
Speaker 2: Are not you to the court room and they're going
Speaker 2: to face trial on the separate case next year in February,
Speaker 2: which is in a way linked to this one here today.
Speaker 2: So this is two separate cases, two separate locomotive cases,
Speaker 2: but are linked in a way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it gets fairly complicated in the arguments for bail.
Speaker 1: I mean, how do any sense of how the judge
Speaker 1: arrived at fifty thousand rand per person, because certainly the
Speaker 1: amounts of money involved and the little bits I heard
Speaker 1: of the Effi Davids did suggest that that in general,
Speaker 1: at least some of these men or men of means.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So there was a big, quite lengthy argument in
Speaker 2: court today. The state was saying that it wanted them
Speaker 2: to be given a bail of two hundred thousand rands
Speaker 2: looking at the corruption cases that they are facing. The
Speaker 2: money that is involved as well, millions of rands was
Speaker 2: allegedly siphoned to the companies linked to the the family,
Speaker 2: and the state was making this argument in court to say,
Speaker 2: while these men are arguing that they can't afford two
Speaker 2: hundred thousand rand, if we look at their case and
Speaker 2: the kind of allegations that they are dealing with, and
Speaker 2: the fact that it's a charge five kings that they
Speaker 2: are facing here, they need to be given two hundred
Speaker 2: thousand rand Baylor. But these states then gave them fifty
Speaker 2: thousand rand each. We heard Prime mule So, who's a
Speaker 2: member of parliament for the Umkontosus a party telling the
Speaker 2: court that he earns about forty four thousand rand per
Speaker 2: month and was telling the court that he could only
Speaker 2: afford twenty thousand rand bail, but they judge that took
Speaker 2: it to fifty thousand rand, and he says it's because
Speaker 2: they were awarded bail on a separate case, the case
Speaker 2: that I'm talking about, which the trial is set to
Speaker 2: start in place next year. They were awarded fifty thousand
Speaker 2: rand bail there, so they are going to be given
Speaker 2: the same amount here. And because they've been adhering to
Speaker 2: their bail conditions and that other separate case, there are
Speaker 2: no reasons to believe that they will be flight this
Speaker 2: time around. So the bail conditions are more or less
Speaker 2: the same with the previous case. The amount is also
Speaker 2: the same with the case that with their first case
Speaker 2: that has to do with trans Net locomotives as well.
Speaker 1: Thanks very much, Alpha Ramo Schwana. Keeping on that court case.
Speaker 1: More analysis on the matters behind what's turned up in
Speaker 1: court and what will be heard doubtless once the case
Speaker 1: gets underway. When it gets underway, because invariably there's a
Speaker 1: string of postponements before we get to the real business
Speaker 1: end of the matter. But we'll talk about that again
Speaker 1: after five o'clock twenty three minutes past three