EXCLUSIVE: Zondo has sold his soul to protect the interests of white ruling class

By: Lucky Montana

On Wednesday, 22 June 2022, the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, Corruption, and Fraud in the Public Sector, including Organs of State (“State Capture Commission”), chaired by the Chief Justice, RMM Zondo, submitted its final report to His Excellency, President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The final report deals with the remainder of the public entities: State Security Agency (SSA), South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), and the Estina Dairy Project as well as presents the “bigger picture” on State Capture. The country is already grappling with the meaning of these reports and the implications thereof.
The President has taken a sensible position and stated he will study the reports and present an Action Plan to Parliament by October 2022.

The President emphasized in his acceptance of the final report that the conclusion of the work of the Commission brings to an end the “Era of State Capture” which others claimed dominated South African public life in the past decade.

The true meaning of the Reports – protect the interests of the white ruling class. As I continue to study the findings and recommendations of the Commission’s reports, I am shocked by the extent to which Justice Zondo has been prepared to sell his soul and protect the status quo.

He has used his position to help strengthen and deepen the power of the Mineral Energy Complex since the advent of our democracy.

The greatest, if not the only, test for the State Capture Commission Reports should be the extent to which its findings and Recommendations will assist South Africa to address its major challenges and fault-lines in our society.

Judging by the contents of the various Parts and Volumes of the Commission’s Report, South Africans should be worried. Unfortunately, Justice Zondo allowed this vitally-important Commission to be used to pursue some, whilst protecting others.

If the tone and contents of the Commission’s Reports are anything to go by, South Africa faces a turbulent future. Justice Zondo has effectively put in place a formula which will set South Africa on a path of perpetual conflict and retribution.

Justice Zondo missed the opportunity to help the country move forward, to help the nation heal, and to objectively and fairly present the challenges facing South Africa, hold accountable those responsible for wrongdoing, recommend the implementation of well-thought and lasting solutions which are rationally connected to the very purpose of his Commission and set us on a path towards a uniting vision and a prosperous future.

Judge Zondo and his Commission have failed the biggest test. The central thrust of the Commission’s report is outrightly reactionary, anti-transformation, and setting the country on a path of division and bitter conflict. In fact, the report is about consolidating the power of the very white establishment which plundered South Africa for over 300 years and destroyed it in the last twenty-five (25) years since the advent of democracy.

These reports have emboldened the most reactionary and criminal sections of South African society. The black majority are the real losers in this Commission’s findings.

Justice Zondo has enabled the white ruling class, which controls South Africa and dominates its economy, to restore its power over the affairs of the democratic State.

This is a culmination of a strategy pursued by Anglo-Americans and its allies since the mid-1980s. it has delivered the desired results.

State capture is the ideology of the white ruling class to protect its economic interests. It has now been embraced by the ruling party, the African National Congress. Getting the party of the black majority and its alliance partners, the SACP and COSATU, to adopt the ideology of the ruling class, State Capture, is a significant strategic victory.

This was achieved through relentless activity and coordinated strategy developed after the June 16, 1976 uprisings. This was taken to greater heights with the co-option of certain sections of the black community through shares for emerging lack business and opening bonds and other loans for black professionals.

The traditional base of the ANC and the popular alliance that underpinned the struggles in the late 1970s and 1980s has fractured in a big way.

Judging by the findings and selected application of the law, our Chief Justice, assured there will not be effective resistance from within the black community, is acting in the best interests of vested white commercial interests. He has used the Commission to create a new framework which will effectively block any meaningful transformation of our country and suppress the historic demands of the black majority.

The Constitutional provision for change is being undermined and the agenda for radical socio-economic transformation criminalised. Through his findings and recommendations, the destruction of colonial and capitalist structures created for the national domination and economic exploitation of the black majority has been deferred.

Chief Justice Zondo has personally undertaken the biggest-ever Cover-Up (post-1994) of the criminal activities of the established white sector. He has protected Glencore and other companies looting ESKOM, MultiChoice on SABC, the white criminal networks that benefit enormously from both SARS and the SA Reserve Bank, Werksmans Attorneys on the collapse of PRASA, and of course, one of their principal agents in government, Minister Pravin Gordhan.

He has written about BOSASA, how it was a corrupt operation and everything it did was about corruption. However, this corruption applies to Gwede Mantashe, Nomvula Mokonyane, Thabang Makwetla, and others but not to President Cyril Ramaphosa or his son, who have clearly benefitted from BOSASA.

Justice Zondo did not only do this major cover-up, he was prepared to tell lies and do exactly the very opposite of what the commission was established to do: establish the true facts and make recommendations aimed at protecting South Africa and preventing the “capture” of public institutions moving forward.

Contrary to the position of the President, the completion of the work of the State Capture Commission does not represent the end to the chapter of State Capture in South Africa.

It is clear the Commission used public funds to mask the actual state capture in South Africa. Like many before it, the State Capture Commission is a missed opportunity for South Africa.

The report presents some clear instances of corruption and wrongdoing which must be dealt with by law enforcement agencies, without fear or favour. The struggle against corruption must be intensified. Corruption is a cancer eating at the fabric of our society and the ability of the government to deliver quality public services.

We must promote the culture of fighting fraud and corruption.

However, Justice Zondo failed to demonstrate how these separate acts of corruption are linked, strategically or otherwise, to the very notion of State Capture, which proponents of state capture had been pushing.

The root cause of our socio-economic crisis in South Africa has nothing to do with the corruption of the Guptas or their so-called capture of the State. Our problems and challenges are rooted in the history of oppression and exploitation established over three centuries. It is the ideology of the white ruling-class called State Capture which has been successful in making the black majority believe their problems are primarily due to corrupt blacks in the ANC- government and not the other way around: i.e. our problems are predominantly found in the specific form of capitalism which developed within the context of colonial relations in South Africa and emerged after the discovery of minerals.

The system has been able to reproduce itself largely on the super-exploitation of African migrant labour.

The ANC has been unable or even afraid to restructure the old economic structures inherited from our apartheid past.

These structures have been reproduced post-1994 and are characterised by two related phenomenon: Firstly, integration of the “first world economy” of South Africa, largely dominated by the Mineral Energy Complex, into the global system of production dominated by global powers and secondly, the disintegration of the “Second Economy” (including the rural economy) starved of meaningful investment and fiscal support, resulting in the deepening socio-economic crisis we face today, with the majority of black families going to bed hungry.

There is no alternative: South Africa must enter into some kind of deal to facilitate the redistribution of wealth and income or ensure an equitable share of the national income.

This is a historic necessity or the country will collapse under social conflict, criminality, and the emergence of political demagogues.

Justice Zondo promised a bigger picture and tell us what State Capture is all about, how did it work and what are the conditions for its success.

There is simply no such “bigger picture” in his final report. There is a no bigger picture because he is either incapable of making such an analysis or was simply under pressure from the real owners of South Africa.

During his testimony, Brian Molefe addressed Justice Zondo and said “many people assume that the Chairperson has already decided that there is state capture”. The Chairperson did not respond to this statement. Brian Molefe and many others did not know what was to come.

Today, South Africa knows Justice Zondo has concluded there was State Capture by some, and not others. It is not clear why Justice Zondo chose one particular version of State Capture and ignored others.

The reports fail to provide the reader with the Commission’s own definition of “State Capture”, what it means by State Capture and how this concept is a useful tool to understand the state of our country. All one could find are isolated statements in the report.

Others may say this was not its intended purpose. However, the truth is that the Commission failed to establish linkages to be used against political opponents in the period leading to the ANC’s 55th National Conference in December 2022.

Part 1 of the Commission’s report is proving to be a “damp squib”. The Commission is lost in detail and has failed to elevate the evidence it has heard to the most strategic level.

The choice had already been made, not only on whether or not state capture exists but which version the Commission prefers, albeit without supporting evidence. Pravin Gordhan was among the first witnesses to testify before the Commission in October 2018, and his version based on “connecting the dots” to pursue political opponents of the status quo in the country, and not concrete evidence, has been accepted as “gospel truth” by the Commission.

President Ramaphosa, through his Action Plan, will activate this and make this the official position of the democratic state.

With regard to PRASA, the Commission failed to do proper investigations on this vitally- important public entity, the destruction of rail infrastructure running into billions after the PRASA board’s decision of 2019/20 to terminate security contracts (in a haste as part of the so-called fight against State Capture and corruptions), allegations in respect of my properties, and most importantly, the serious allegations against the sophisticated network run by Minister Pravin Gordhan and Warren Goldblatt (Pravin-Goldblatt Axis) which was executed at PRASA through the Werksmans Investigation.

In my submission to the State Capture Commission, I provided evidence which showed how Minister Pravin Gordhan, with the assistance of Mr Popo Molefe, Minister Dipuo Peters, Dr Zweli Mkhize, Ms Zodwa Manase, Werksmans Attorneys through its Lead Partner, Bernard Hotz, Basileus Concolium Professional Services (BCPS) under Warren Goldblatt, Howarth Forensics under Ryan Sacks, Ukhozi Forensics under Mohammed Seedat working with Ivan Pillay, former SARS Acting Commissioner and a key player in the SARS Rogue Unit and others, had destroyed PRASA.

In his testimony to this Commission in October 2018, Minister Pravin Gordhan describes how State Capture operated and stated the following:
“Repeated changes to Cabinet, to the Boards of State-Owned Companies, and in the leadership of key institutions and organs of state, often without rational explanation, were done to take control of such institutions. This would be followed by the plunder of resources within those institutions, without the risk of prosecution”.

This is in fact how PRASA was destroyed with changes made to its board in August 2014, its strategic gains reversed within a confined space of time, its modernization programme brought to a complete halt, and rail operations allowed to collapse, and yes, its resources plundered.

All this was instigated by Pravin Gordhan in his capacity as the Minister of Finance. By 2014, PRASA’s Modernization Programme had entered a critical phase of implementation. This was a bold and ambitious programme to modernize the passenger railway system through investing significantly in new rolling stock, modernizing depots, replacing the old signaling system, and embarking on infrastructure and station modernization.

The total investment over a 20-year period was estimated at R173 billion. This programme was aimed at changing the travel experiences of South Africans. Naturally, such a programme
would attract competing interests and it certainly did. The political forces arising from the actions of Minister Pravin Gordhan from February 2014 went on to reverse and destroy, within 3 years, everything PRASA, and its predecessor the SARCC had achieved in the passenger rail sector over a 10-year period.

In his final report, Justice Zondo recommends a full commission of Inquiry into PRASA. This is laughable. Whilst I am in principle not opposed to another inquiry, Justice Zondo, his legal and investigating teams have ignored the detailed documentary evidence and graphs which I presented m, detailing how PRASA was destroyed between July 2015 and December 202I.

Justice Zondo did everything to protect Minister Pravin Gordhan, Warren Goldblatt, Werksmans Attorneys, and his criminal network. They are just so powerful. The information is available and another inquiry will be a waste of scarce public resources.

However, this was not the end, Justice Zondo did not only protect Pravin – Goldblatt Axis but went to great lengths to undermine the very independence and authority of the Auditor-General of South Africa (“AGSA”), the DPCI (“the Hawks”) and Special Investigating Unit (“SIU”) in favour of this criminal network.

His findings in the final reports are not driven by the interest of justice.
Reading the volume on PRASA, it is clear Justice Zondo has in fact gone as far as to undermine key institutions supporting Constitutional democracy, in order to deliver on the pre-determined agenda set by his masters.

In respect of the appointment of Werksmans Attorneys, the Auditor-General had made findings for both the 2016 and 2017 Financial Years. The findings say the appointment of Werksmans Attorneys is irregular. The Auditor-General also put to rest the lie that Werksmans Attorneys was appointed from a database or panel of legal providers.

In fact, the Auditor-General states there was no evidence to show other service providers on the PRASA panel were given the opportunity to bid for the work. The truth is that the appointment of Werksmans Attorneys was not only irregular but based on serious misrepresentation, and therefore fraudulent.

In his final report, Justice Zondo did not ignore the evidence but abused his authority as chairperson of the Commission, overriding the findings of the AGSA, a chapter Nine institution.

I am aware that the SIU has been investigating various PRASA matters following a proclamation by the President. I was recently contacted by a journalist who wanted me to comment on the draft report of the SIU. I requested to meet the journalist and read the draft report. I read the report and it put the irregular appointment of Werksmans Attorneys “squarely” on Popo Molefe (Board Chairman) and Zodwa Manase (Chairperson of the Board’s Audit and Risk Management Committee (ARM).

Through his report, Justice Zondo is trying to pre-empt the findings of the SIU and by protecting Werksmans Attorneys, prevent the SIU from pursuing the law firm to pay back to PRASA over R400 million paid to Werksmans. This happened to KPMG, Bain, and others, why not Werksmans Attorneys?

In my opening statement to the Commission on 16 April 2021, I brought to the attention of Justice Zondo how Popo Molefe and Werksmans Attorneys almost succeeded in capturing the HAWKS by deploying Howarth Forensics (Ryan Sacks) inside this crime-fighting institution.

This was done under the pretext the DPCI did not have the capacity to analyse “complex financial transactions”. Howarth did this work whilst at the same time, it was an integral part of the Werksmans investigation at PRASA. The aim was to manipulate the evidence and force the HAWKS to pursue trumped-up charges against some of us.

The information obtained unlawfully by Howarth Forensics is now used by Ryan Sacks whom the Commission had placed so much reliance on.

Fortunately, the HAWKS learnt of this during one of the presentations made by Werksmans Attorneys and immediately terminated the mandate of Howarth Forensics.

Today, the same tainted evidence by Howarth Forensics forms part of the findings by Justice Zondo, who has blasted the DPCI for not acting on the false evidence from the Werksmans investigation. In this, Justice Zondo violated the Constitution, various laws, and his own Oath of Office as a Judicial Officer. He must resign immediately.

Below is an extract from my statements to the Commission in respect of the attempts to manipulate both the DPCI and NPA.

Popo Molefe and Werksmans Attorneys became desperate. Their investigation was not yielding the results they had anticipated. They could not link me to any act of fraud and corruption at PRASA.

Popo Molefe had written to the HAWKS to try and get the crime-fighting body to pursue me and other people.

Mkhabela Huntley, one of the legal firms irregularly appointed by PRASA to assist with the “implementation of recommendation and Remedial Actions directed by the Public Protector”, reflects the desperation to turn irregularities into criminal conduct. Their Report to PRASA dated 11 February 2018 was trying to force the issue of criminality into matters that are clearly about Governance and Internal Controls.

However, Popo Molefe and Werksmans Attorneys, other than negative speculation, could not provide solid evidence to the DPCI, as evidenced in the response by the DPCI and other correspondence between the two public institutions.

When DPCI requested solid evidence linking each of the individuals to a specific crime, Popo Molefe and PRASA provided the same documents they submitted to Court on the Siyangena and Swifambo matter.

The DPCI indicated that they needed solid evidence and not court papers in civil matters.

Popo Molefe, Werksmans Attorneys and BCPS were determined to “write the script” for DPCI and the NPA. They were not in favour of an independent investigation that they could not control.

Part of the plan was to get DPCI to appoint Howarth Forensics, one of the companies working very closely with BCPS and Ukhozi in the Werksmans investigation, to play a central role in the DPCI investigation. They claimed there was no capacity at DPCI to do complex financial analysis.

When this plan failed, Popo Molefe took DPCI to court and claimed they were failing to investigate cases of corruption at PRASA.

It was reported in the media that DPCI had opposed the application.

In correspondence between PRASA and DPCI, it has become clear that there is a lack of solid evidence presented by PRASA to DPCI. Instead, PRASA has submitted a list of persons to be investigated without the submission of concrete evidence linking each person to a specific crime.

PRASA, supported by Werksmans Attorneys, were also hoping to get the support of the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) to support their case if DPCI did not accede to their demands. Popo Molefe had written to Advocate Shaun Abrahams in this regard. Advocate Shaun Abrahams had replied to PRASA and effectively sent them back to DPCI. It is clear from the response of Advocate Abrahams that Popo Molefe wanted to even dictate to the prosecution authority on which charges to proffer on his enemies.

I was pleased that the Head of the NPA rejected such an attempt to undermine the independence of the institution. The biggest challenge for Popo Molefe, BCPS, and Werksmans Attorneys was how to deal with the lack of evidence against me and many others and the illegal surveillance they have been conducting over the years to obtain such evidence.

Popo Molefe was not prepared to accept this setback. In an unprecedented move, he launched a court challenge in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria to force the DPCI to investigate the cases under terms laid by him and Werksmans Attorneys. The Court ordered the DPCI to respond to the matter.

The DPCI responded to the Court Order and tabled an affidavit deposed to by General Khana. The affidavit also records the rejection by the DPCI of Popo Molefe, assisted by Werksmans Attorneys, to undermine an independent investigation by the DPCI.

I urge the Commission to obtain the Court file and study the Affidavit by General Khana. It sets out in detail how Popo Molefe and Werksmans Attorneys had tried to undermine the very independence of the DPCI investigation. This is contrary to the unfounded statements by Justice Zondo that evidence was presented but DPCI did nothing to investigate. This is the evidence presented to Justice Zondo.

He continued with his attacks on the HAWKS and NPA during the PRASA hearings, based solely on the testimony of Popo Molefe. The Affidavit deposed to by General Godfrey Lebeya, after the fact, was not only unlawful but another brazen attempt at a cover-up by Justice Zondo. The true facts were compromised.

It is important that I address two other matters in respect of the findings on PRASA.

Justice Zondo says I must be prosecuted for the appointment of Swifambo Rail Leasing.

There is no factual basis for this personalised attack on me. The facts before Justice Zondo are clear and he decided to ignore them. Firstly, as GCEO and the board, we were not involved in the writing of tender specifications, we did not evaluate tenders nor adjudicate bids. We received recommendations from the evaluating and adjudicating teams.

I was not personally involved in the tender other than being CEO and a Board member. The recommendation for the award of the tender to Swifambo was approved by the full Board of PRASA on 24 July 2012.

To show I am being targeted, Justice Zondo ignored obvious facts:

• That PRASA had tested the market through An Expression of Interest, a process led by Mr. Ingwa Sichula (then Group Executive: Engineering Services at PRASA) and not Daniel Mtimkhulu as asserted by Justice Zondo;

• That the specification for the locomotive tender was delivered by a full team comprising of various disciplines, and not Daniel Mtimkulu (Executive Manager for Engineering Services in the PRASA Rail Division and not the so-called chief Engineer
at PRASA);

• That Swifambo Rail Leasing won an open, competitive, and transparent tender advertised in the media;

• That Swifambo was not the only company which presented a bid but six other companies participated;

• That Swifambo was not the only company which presented an option for outright purchase but General Electric (GE) did the same;

• That the bids of Swifambo and GE for outright purchase were evaluated by PRASA’s Treasury team led by Brian Alexander, who prepared the numbers and presented this to the Bid Adjudication team (BAC);

• That the price offered by Swifambo for its locomotives was R3,5 billion beyond the delegated authority of the GCEO of R100 million and required Board approval;

• That Swifambo had already delivered to PRASA 13 of the 20 locomotives Diesel- Electric locomotives, had completed another 7 others which were at the harbour to be shipped, and already 5 of the 50 Hybrid locomotives were in the process of production. Swifambo was delivering on its contract contrary to what the media had reported and the lies promoted by justice Zondo himself;

• That PRASA had paid R2,6 billion of the R3,5 billion contract value, and that the bulk of this money was spent on the locomotive tender,

• That the investigation by (the highly-compromised) Ryan Sacks of Howarth Forensics does not present evidence of looting other than the flow of money from PRASA payments to Swifambo to Vossloh (which bought various components and ran the production line in Valencia), as well as payments to other entities and individuals related to Swifambo Holdings; and

• There is no evidence of fraud or corruption involving any PRASA officials.

The question is why the Chief Justice decided to ignore the evidence and targeted me in the matter he had done. He is being to himself – a true criminal who allowed himself to be used by the Pravin-Goldblatt Evil Axis.

In respect of my property dealings, Justice Zondo should be ashamed of himself. He summoned me to appear before him in April 2021 to answer questions on various allegations. One of these was the allegation made by the investigating team of the Commission in the PRASA stream under Clint Oellermann. It was alleged that I bought properties for R36 million within a year but did not put any money.

I went to the Commission to deal with the lies and presented evidence to Justice Zondo in the form of bond documents, monthly payments, letters of approval by the banks, e-mails, disposal of some of the properties, and how I invested the proceeds of some of my properties in other developments, joint venture agreements, etc, all proving how I had acquired my properties.

The evidence is clear: I had obtained a Private One Bank facility of R10.5 million from ABSA to purchase four (4) properties and another bond from FNB to purchase one (1) other property. The noise about the property I sold in Parkwood is absolute madness.

However, in his final report, Justice Zondo makes a sudden huge U-Turn. He concedes that the properties he is dealing with belonged to a company called Precise Trade, with Riaan van der Walt as its sole Shareholder and Director.
Instead of leaving it there and conceding defeat, Justice Zondo says I was involved with Riaan van der Walt when he bought his properties. Yes, I was involved in business with Riaan van der Walt with the view to develop properties. This was never a secret and is fully disclosed in my submission to the Commission.

Riaan van der Walt had his own properties and I had mine, financed through the bank.

We chose to work together to develop properties and make money. There is nothing unlawful about this nor is there a conflict of interest.

The desperate attempts to make Riaan van der Walt’s properties mine was perhaps the biggest lie which Justice Zondo had accepted as fact even before I even testified. He was shocked by the hard facts and evidence I presented.

This was the area that the Pravin-Goldblatt network had planned to nail me on but this failed dismally. They changed the script for Justice Zondo and he included it in his final report.

Justice Zondo says I must be investigated for my property dealing. I must tell him I have been investigated by the HAWKS and SIU on my property dealings since July 2015. I have nothing to fear and welcome another probe on my property dealings.

Hopefully, Justice Zondo will be satisfied and accept the outcome this time around. Justice Zondo has allowed himself to be used by the Pravin-Goldblatt criminal network to pursue me relentlessly and deliver my head. Let me assure him of one thing: he will not succeed and he is bound to fail and lose his position as Chief Justice.

I am the one pursuing him relentlessly.

I am afraid to say it, but Justice Zondo compromised himself. He does not deserve to be the Chief Justice of the Republic of South Africa. A legal process should be initiated for his removal from office. I intend to lay the first criminal charges against him in the coming days or weeks after studying the full reports and consulting my lawyers.

It is also my firm view the reports of the State Capture Commission should not only be taken into review but criminal charges should be laid against Chief Justice Zondo personally, for his deliberate violation of the law, abuse of power, criminal conduct, and disgraceful conduct.

He used this Commission to effectively protect the real criminals amongst us and consolidated their power.

Dithupa tsa Raymond Zondo di metsing!
Mmuso wa Magodimo a ka se o bone (In)Justice Zondo! Mukhalabye Raymond Zondo u ta xi kuma lexi a xi lavaka!

*Lucky Montana is the former PRASA Group Chief Executive Officer