News / National
Molefe exposes Transnet's CEO
12 Sep 2024 at 06:58hrs | Views
The role state capture has played in the current troubles facing Transnet was in dispute in Parliament on Tuesday as the state freight company's former CEO, now MK Party MP, Brian Molefe, challenged the claim.
The battle lines were drawn with his former colleagues when Transnet Group CEO Michelle Phillips said that debt and assets acquired during the so-called state capture years had put Transnet in its precarious financial and operational situation.
The struggling SOE was before Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) on Tuesday to discuss its over R7 billion loss in the past financial year.
Phillips said that servicing the company's burgeoning debt of R130 billion was leaving little money for its operational turnaround.
She said that almost half this debt was acquired during the state capture years between 2011 and 2018.
Phillips added that a lack of maintenance during this time and the acquisition of locomotives which now could not be used were also contributing factors.
"There's a R60 billion [of] what we call ineffective debt - this is debt that's been incurred, and debt that we have to redeem, but for which we in effect do not receive any positive value."
But MK MP Brian Molefe challenged Phillips on this, saying these were the company's most profitable years when the movement of goods was also at its highest.
The battle lines were drawn with his former colleagues when Transnet Group CEO Michelle Phillips said that debt and assets acquired during the so-called state capture years had put Transnet in its precarious financial and operational situation.
The struggling SOE was before Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) on Tuesday to discuss its over R7 billion loss in the past financial year.
Phillips said that servicing the company's burgeoning debt of R130 billion was leaving little money for its operational turnaround.
Phillips added that a lack of maintenance during this time and the acquisition of locomotives which now could not be used were also contributing factors.
"There's a R60 billion [of] what we call ineffective debt - this is debt that's been incurred, and debt that we have to redeem, but for which we in effect do not receive any positive value."
But MK MP Brian Molefe challenged Phillips on this, saying these were the company's most profitable years when the movement of goods was also at its highest.
Source - iol
