The purpose of this statement is to update the public on the campaign by the SouthAfrican Federation of Trade Union’s (SAFTU) campaign to hold accountable those responsible for grand corruption at State-Owned Enterprises (SoEs).
On 5 October 2017, SAFTU wrote to NPA head, Shaun Abrahams, announcing our intention to launch court action should the Hawks and NPA not investigate and prosecute those who benefited from the looting of Eskom and Transnet. We also asked them to exercise their constitutional duties in terms of section 26 or 38 of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act of 1998 to preserve the assets associated with the well-known crimes at Trillian.
In the second-half of 2016, the infamous Trillian heist was laid bare by the Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela. The press and brave whistleblowers from within that company followed up with hard evidence. Yet, one year later, nothing has happened.
In reply to our letter, advocate Shaun Abrahams claims that an investigation into state capture, arising from advocate Madonsela’s State of Capture Report, was started in March 2017. Only recently however were Asset Forfeiture Unit investigators, under advocate IK Molele, added to this team to try to get the money back.
We are shocked at the delay. The prosecutors are not seriously doing their job and we think we understand what is blocking them. The pity is that billions have been taken to Dubai in the interim. How much of this money has untraceably vanished, we can only imagine.
However, we are impressed by the track record of advocate Molele. He has a reputation as a fearless and uncaptured lawyer. If an AFU team, under his leadership, is trying to do their job, we will throw our full support behind them. In the same vein, if advocate Shaun Abrahams starts the long overdue prosecutions tomorrow, we will extend to him the same support.
Eskom and Transnet are the lifeblood of our economy. They provide jobs to thousands of workers, they power our companies and link our cities. Under the leadership of Gupta stooges and fronts like Trillian, these institutions have been brought to their knees. Those who participated in this are not mere thieves, they are saboteurs, billionaire izinyoka who must be brought to justice.
As SAFTU, we are continuing in our campaign to prompt the justice system to work. Given the urgency of dissipation, the huge amounts involved and the overwhelming worker and public interest, we will be taking further legal steps shortly. However, we also wish to assure all honest public servants of SAFTU’s militant and unflinching support should they be hampered in any way from cleaning up the rot in our SoEs.
It is never too late to do the right thing.
Leave a Reply