Murder of engineer linked to Transnet corruption

SLAIN engineer Armand Swarts was killed days after the company he worked for raised questions about a Transnet tender issued to SK Group, a company found to be inflating prices.

- GCWALISILE KHANYILE [e-mail]

This emerged when Witness B, a detective with the Organised Crime unit of the SAPS in Gauteng, testified at the Madlanga Commission yesterday.

She is one of the detectives investigating Swarts’s murder. He was shot dead on April 7, 2024, in the mistaken belief that he was a whistleblower providing police with crucial information.

The hitmen allegedly mistook him for a colleague who had exposed corruption in a tender linked to Transnet. The company Swart worked for had uncovered overpricing of 4 650% on small engineering parts at Transnet.

In her testimony, Witness B placed controversial businessman and murder-accused Katiso ‘KT’ Molefe and his ‘friend’ Warrant Officer Michael Pule Tau in the vicinity of Swarts’ workplace in Vereeniging, days before the murder.