Gupta-linked Trillian Management Consultancy (TMC) had no apparent long-term plans of business operation beyond the tenure of former president Jacob Zuma.
This is according to former TMC CEO and whistleblower Bianca Goodson, who testified before the Zondo commission on the dodgy dealings of the company on Thursday.
TMC and its parent company Trillian Capital Partners have been widely implicated in state capture allegations after being fingered in dubious contractual dealings with state-owned companies, including Eskom and Transnet.
Goodson recounted in her testimony, which she had previously told parliament, how the company – under the control of Gupta associate Salim Essa – swindled millions of rand while keeping CEOs and the executive management of its subsidiaries out of the loop.
Goodson, who spent just over two months as TMC’s chief executive, said she had raised concerns with Clive Angel, who helped recruit her, about her inability to know how long the business was going to sustain itself as she was barred from seeing its financials.
She said she had been told by Angel that Trillian's planning was for “the current dispensation”.
“Typically in this industry if people are setting up an IPO, you are setting it up to list on the stock exchange, ultimately. I had asked Mr Angel if this was the intention with Trillian and he said he was not sure as Trillian’s lifespan is only envisaged for the current dispensation,” she said.
Evidence leader, advocate Pule Seleka, asked what Goodson understood to be the “current dispensation” Angel had referred to.
Goodson replied: “I understood it to be like the political affiliation with our president [Zuma]”.
She earlier told the commission about an interview with Essa for her job in 2015, which she said he used to make a business case for his company.
“It was an interesting interview because it felt as though he was selling the company to me as opposed to me trying to sell my skills and competence to him and I found it a bit bizarre. Mr Essa went on to say his vision for Trillian Capital was that it would compete in the same space as the likes of McKinsey,” Goodson said.
Goodson said Essa had lamented that there were very few management consultancy companies in the public sector and expressed his ambition to create “a new proudly black SA company that also competes in that space”.
“At the time load-shedding was rife. He mentioned to me that the intention was to go to Eskom and reduce load-shedding and help Eskom become a first world utility and it sounded exciting,” she said.
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