Former SAA boss Dudu Myeni scored more than R600,000 in less than a year from donations made to the Jacob Zuma Foundation, which has been under her full control for years.
Bank statements for Myeni and the foundation, subpoenaed by the Zondo commission, reveal that between December 2014 and October 2015, the foundation transferred R655,000 to Myeni’s personal bank account. The transactions were for amounts varying from R30,000 to more than R90,000 a month. The foundation had as much as R5m in its bank account at times.
Chief justice Raymond Zondo has recommended that Myeni and the foundation be investigated for alleged corruption.
The foundation came under scrutiny in the state capture inquiry in 2020 when a KwaZulu-Natal businessman based in Richards Bay, who was referred to as Mr X for safety reasons, alleged Myeni had laundered at least R3.15m for the foundation.
The bank statements were filed as annexures to the Zondo report.
Foundation spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi yesterday declined to comment, saying that since Zuma intended to take the entire report on judicial review, there was “absolutely no point in engaging on the matters you are raising”.
The foundation’s bank records also reveal that cash deposits amounting to R1.5m were made into it between December 2014 and January 2018. The deposits were made by individuals who mostly just signed the deposit slips and added their initials instead of their full names or details, raising suspicions of money laundering. The deposits varied from R50,000 to R200,000.
In February 2015 the foundation paid R93,720 to Myeni in two tranches of R60,000 and R33,720.
In June she received her biggest monthly payment, R135,996, made in two tranches of R93,000 and R42,996. The records show that after this she received R42,996 a month until October of that year, when the bank records end.
Myeni was not the foundation's only big beneficiary. Zuma’s now-estranged wife Thobeka Madiba-Zuma was paid R100,000 by the foundation in June 2015; she could not be reached for comment.
Mr X testified at the commission that payments by various entities through his company Isibonelo Construction were allegedly made under Myeni’s instructions between 2015 and 2016.
The commission found that R2m flowed from the Free State provincial government’s housing project to VNA Consulting, which made payments to Premier Attraction, a company owned by Myeni’s son Thalente, and then to Mr X’s company Isibonelo in 2015.
According to Mr X, after receiving these funds he was instructed by Myeni to deposit them into the foundation’s bank account.
“The flow of funds from the Free State to these various individuals and entities needs to be investigated further to establish whether there was a corrupt relationship between any of these parties in terms of which state funds were redirected to benefit private parties, including the Jacob Zuma Foundation,” said Zondo in the first part of his report.
He said the foundation was used as a vehicle to “personally benefit” Myeni and the foundation.
“The evidence of Mr X also merits further detailed investigation and possible charges of corruption being laid against all the individuals involved in the scheme to secure millions of rand for the personal benefit of Dudu Myeni and the Jacob Zuma Foundation.”
According to Mr X, other monies laundered through his company for the benefit of the foundation came from Mhlathuze Water Board in Richards Bay, which was chaired by Myeni at the time.
The foundation also received a R500,000 donation from Transnet, signed by the then acting CEO Siyabonga Gama in 2015. The payment was for a Youth Day event at the Durban International Convention Centre.
Gama was controversially reinstated at Transnet — after an intervention by Zuma which included the removal of then public enterprises minister Barbara Hogan — after he was dismissed for misconduct in 2010.
Zondo found that Gama’s reinstatement and subsequent appointment as acting CEO were due to political interference by Zuma. Gama has denied this and dismissed Zondo’s findings.
According to documents before the commission, Transnet pledged the donation after the foundation had requested R3m for a table at the event with 10 guests, and for Gama to be seated next to Zuma and address the guests.
Another Transnet document shows that this was not the first time taxpayers’ money was channeled to the foundation, as it had on February 20 2012 donated R100,000.
"Transnet spokesperson Ayanda Shezi said the company could not find any records for the R100,000 payment."
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