Parliament, Tuesday, 31 October 2017 – The Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises continued its inquiry on Tuesday into the mismanagement of funds in state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

Appearing before the Committee as a witness was Ms Mosilo Mothepu. Ms Mothepu worked at Regiments Capital from 2007 to 2010 in the Advisory Division. She was then reappointed as a Principal at Regiments Capital on 15 June 2015. She was appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Trillian Financial Advisory (TFA) effective from 1 March 2016.

Briefing the Committee, Ms Mothepu informed members of the Committee of the knowledge of the following issues:

Procurement of McKinsey & Co by Eskom and sub-contracting of Regiments/Trillian Capital Partners (TCP) as a supply development partner;

Trillian Asset Management managed R93m club loan fee to Transnet;

R10m invoice to Transnet for work on the African order book; R36m invoiced to Transnet for work on increasing TFR’s sales volumes;

TFA invoiced South African Express for R5m, helping to arrange a R567m banking credit facility. However, the proposal advanced by TFA was not supported by the National Treasury; and

Pre-knowledge of the firing of the two former Finance Ministers.

Ms Mothepu raised concerns with the Group CEO, Mr Eric Wood, regarding the fact that TFA did not have signed contracts with Eskom, Transnet, Denel and South African Express, yet they continued to provide financial advisory services, and invoiced them for (purported) work done. These concerns were never fully addressed. Ms Mothepu resigned as CEO of TFA on 22 June 2016 and executive director on 27 June 2016.

In her statement, Ms Mothepu said it should be noted that Trillian companies contributed to the purchase of Optimum Coal Holdings by paying funds into the Bank of Baroda account of Tegeta Exploration and Resources (Pty) Ltd; Trillian Financial Advisory (TFA) paid R95.6m; Trillian Asset Management paid R74.8m; and Trillian Capital Partners paid R65m, according to the State of Capture Report (2016).

In her submission to the Committee, Ms Mothepu said she was providing evidence on the work that was not done by Trillian – and that with regard to some of the work that was done by Trillian, there were no contracts in place with Eskom, Transnet, South African Express and Denel.

During her presentation, Ms Mothepu said the work they did for Eskom was not worth R600m. “I don’t believe the advice we gave Eskom as consultants was worth R600m as I believe the capacity was there at Eskom. Eskom had knowledge of the business as compared to Trillian,” she said.

The Committee commended Ms Mothepu for her courage in coming out and speaking the truth.

Acting Chairperson, Ms Zukiswa Rantho, thanked Ms Mothepu for coming forward to provide evidence to the inquiry. “What you have done is that you have provided a first-hand account of events during your time at Trillian and Regiments. The information raises serious allegations against the abuse of state resources, the Committee will interrogate people that we think have information and those that are affected. You were very bold to come to the Committee with the information that you have,” said Ms Rantho.

ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE ACTING CHAIRPERSON OF PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC ENTERPRISES, MS ZUKISWA RANTHO

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