Publication: Business Report Issued: Date: 2007-04-29 Reporter: Wiseman Khuzwayo

Thales Gets into Rich Gautrain Contract

 

Publication 

Business Report
Date 2007-04-29

Reporter

 Wiseman Khuzwayo

Web Link

www.busrep.co.za

 

Johannesburg - Thales, the leading French international arms and manufacturing company, has been awarded a contract worth millions of rands for the Gautrain automatic fare collection system.

Thales Transportation Systems *1 has been awarded the Gautrain contract after partnering with a local company, Stimela Infrastructure Management Services (Sims).

Thales, whose South African subsidiary, Thint, was found to have agreed to a request by Schabir Shaik to pay a bribe to ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma, responded to e-mails that Business Report had sent to Bombela Concession Company, the constructors of the Gautrain.

This prompted Bombela, through its lawyers, to write to the newspaper, saying Thales "is a distinct and separate legal entity from the Thint companies which were previously charged by the state". *1

The lawyer, Ajay Sookla, demanded an apology in writing from Business Report, failing which Thales would have no option but to take appropriate action. Sookla represented Thint when it was being investigated and charged by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

The Gautrain is a rapid link rail project that is due to be completed in 2010 and will connect OR Tambo International Airport, Sandton, Midrand and Pretoria.

In response to Business Report this week, Yolisa Tyantsi, the communications and marketing executive at Bombela, said: "Sims has entered into a collaborative arrangement with Thales Transportation Systems who will provide elements of the design, materials and technical support.

"After an open, rigorous and fair procurement process, Sims emerged a clear winner ahead of the competition … and we are confident that they will provide the best product for Gautrain."

Sims beat two other competitors for the contract: Titima, a South African/Singapore consortium, and ERG, a US developer and supplier of integrated fare management and software systems for the transit industry. The contract is said to be worth R100 million.

Sims's directors are Fezile Dantile, George van Rooyen and Hendrik van Stryt.

On the website of the Rail Road Association of SA, the company describes itself as providing rail infrastructure to the railway industry.

Thint and its representative, Pierre Moynot, were originally charged with Shaik for corruption but the charge was later withdrawn by the NPA.

However, the NPA has pursued its investigations against Zuma and the company, and it is likely that both could be charged with corruption.

The government has made it abundantly clear that its policy is not to do business with companies that have been convicted of corruption.

Business Report asked the Gautrain for its response over government policy and the real possibility of Thint being charged and convicted.

Jack van der Merwe, the Gautrain project leader, said: "The Gauteng provincial government has signed a public-private partnership concession agreement with the Bombela Consortium.

"This is a fixed-price, lump sum contract with Bombela taking full responsibility to deliver the complete system to the province.

"The procurement process of appointing suppliers and subcontractors for the actual work is done by Bombela."

The bribe to Zuma by Thint was made by Alain Thetard, Thint's representative in South Africa at the time. It was by way of a hand-written encrypted fax to Shaik, Zuma's erstwhile financial adviser, by Thetard, who had passed it on to his superiors in France.

Judge Hillary Squires found the contents of the fax to have been proof that Shaik arranged with Thint for Zuma to be paid a bribe of R500 000 a year for four years to "protect" Thint from the arms deal investigation.

Shaik described in his evidence his request for the payments to Zuma as a donation to the Jacob Zuma Educational Trust.

However, even the supreme court of appeal rejected Shaik's assertion when it confirmed his 15-year sentence. The supreme court of appeal found that the fax "proved beyond reasonable doubt *2 that what Shaik described as a request for a donation to the Jacob Zuma Education Trust was in fact a request for the payment of a bribe to Zuma".

With acknowledgements to Wiseman Khuzwayo and Business Report.



*1       Thales Transportation Systems is surely a subsidiary of Thales Holdings (Southern Africa), incorporated to house Thales International's transportation business in South Africa.

It cannot possibly have been the intention of the legislature that once a juristic entity is found guilty or liable for its conduct, as is the case of Thales, then its directors merely incorporate a new juristic entity with a clean record.

No, sir Thales is guilty, the white judges, plus a black judge or two, have said so.

Thales in all its forms and in all of its endevours should be blacklisted from doing any business with any level of government in the RSA for at least 20 years.

The NPA should also be charging Thales International of France with corruption and bribery, just as the Kingdom of Lesotho successfully charged, convicted and sentence a string of international companies.


*2      The Supreme Court of Appeal found that "
"The State, therefore, proved that Thomson committed an offence in terms of s 1(1)(a)(i) of the CA." [Page 86, first sentence].