(Bloomberg) -- The former chief executive officer of South Africa’s state transport and logistics utility was among five senior executives from the company arrested on Friday to face charges fraud, corruption and money laundering.

Siyabonga Gama, who was fired as CEO of Transnet SOC Ltd. in 2018, sought bail at a court hearing in Johannesburg. Among the others appearing in court were Garry Pita, Transnet’s former acting group chief financial officer.

The arrest of the five are the most high-profile detention of executives allegedly involved in state corruption under former President Jacob Zuma’s nine-year rule. Their detention follows a three-year judicial probe into graft that President Cyril Ramaphosa estimates cost the economy 500 billion rand ($32 billion).

 

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