Nedbank pays transnet R600m to settle disputed swap deal, no admission of guilt

Nedbank and Transnet have reached a confidential commercial settlement that will see Nedbank pay Transnet R600 million, bringing to an end their protracted legal battle over interest-rate swaps concluded in 2015 and 2016 during Transnet’s multibillion-rand locomotive procurement programme.

The swaps, which were advised by a firm tied to the Gupta family, were flagged during the inquiry into state capture as potentially corrupt. The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) together with Transnet had sought recovery of around R2.7 billion from Nedbank, claiming the bank benefited improperly from the transactions.

In their joint statement announcing the settlement, both Nedbank and Transnet said the payment was made “without admission of liability” a standard clause in such deals that allows parties to reconcile without formally acknowledging wrongdoing.

Nedbank insisted that internal reviews conducted prior to the settlement found no evidence of staff dishonesty, corruption or collusion on its part. The bank also maintained that the swap transactions were commercially sound, arguing that the margins it earned far lower than what SIU and Transnet claimed were within market norms.

For Transnet, the settlement recovers some funds and avoids a lengthy, costly court process that could have dragged on for years. Officials said preserving the long-standing relationship with the bank was important for future infrastructure and investment plans a key argument given the scale of the rail and port operations the state-owned company manages.

Still, the resolution leaves unresolved many of the underlying questions about what went wrong during the corrupted procurement era. Critics warn that a monetary settlement does not equate to accountability especially in a saga tied to state capture, where many past deals resulted in billions lost by the state and little justice delivered.