What the proclamation authorises
President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed a proclamation authorising the Special Investigating Unit to investigate allegations of serious maladministration, corruption and irregular expenditure at North West Transport Investments, the state-owned bus operator, along with its subsidiaries North West Star SOC Limited and the Atteridgeville Bus Service SOC Limited.
For commuters in the North West, Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga, the entity under investigation is the one that has been running at a fraction of its normal service for most of this year.
The SIU announced the proclamation on Monday, 14 September 2026. Spokesperson Selby Makgotho said the unit is mandated to recover any financial losses incurred by the state or the entities as a result of corruption or maladministration.
Nobody has been charged. No finding of wrongdoing has been made against any person or company named in the proclamation. An SIU proclamation authorises an investigation and nothing more. Any evidence of criminal conduct would be referred to the National Prosecuting Authority, which would then decide whether to prosecute.
The dates put the contracts inside business rescue
The proclamation itself contains a timeline that has not been drawn out in coverage of it.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1973 | NTI founded in the former Bophuthatswana as a government-owned entity |
| 21 July 2022 | Business rescue practitioner appointed. Voluntary business rescue begins |
| 7 July 2023 | Sub-Contractor Agreement for commuter bus services, now under investigation |
| 28 July 2023 | Vehicle Rental Agreement, now under investigation |
| January 2024 | Jotham Msibi dies. The joint venture’s dealings with him fall within scope |
| July 2025 | Combined summons filed in the North West High Court in Mahikeng |
| Early 2026 | NTI operations collapse. Salaries unpaid, subcontractors withdraw |
| 14 September 2026 | Proclamation announced authorising the SIU investigation |
Business rescue began on 21 July 2022. The two agreements the SIU has been directed to examine are dated 7 July 2023 and 28 July 2023, roughly twelve months into that process.
Business rescue is the period in which a distressed company’s spending is meant to be under the tightest control, with a practitioner appointed to take charge of decisions in order to preserve value for creditors and employees.
The proclamation also places the practitioner inside the investigation. The SIU has been directed to examine actions taken by the business rescue practitioner appointed on 21 July 2022, their agents, or NTI employees, and whether any of it resulted in serious maladministration causing actual or potential losses.
Research published by North-West University records that four years after the process began, it has not produced the intended results, the company remains financially unstable, and public funds continue to be injected through subsidies and bailouts.
What the North West Transport Investments proclamation covers
The SIU has been directed to examine procurement and contracting processes relating to:
- Fuel supplied by Zentrafor Fuel (Pty) Limited, trading as FuelU
- Vehicle rental services under the Vehicle Rental Agreement dated 28 July 2023
- Commuter bus services under the Sub-Contractor Agreement dated 7 July 2023, and the payments made for them
It has also been authorised to investigate the receipt, processing, approval and payment of claims submitted by Transnat Coachlines (Pty) Limited, Ziggy Investments CC, and the joint venture between them. The government’s own release spells the first company as Tansanat Coachlines, while other published accounts use Transnat.
The SIU will examine whether those operations breached applicable legislation or guidelines issued by the National Treasury or the relevant provincial treasury, and “whether individuals or entities received undue benefits”.
News24 and Inside Politics have reported that a R168 million commuter transport tender awarded by the North West Department of Community Safety and Transport Management to that joint venture sits at the centre of the matter, and that Suliman Carrim is the sole member of Ziggy Investments CC, a fact confirmed in a combined summons filed in the North West High Court in Mahikeng in July 2025.
The proclamation names the companies, not Carrim. He has not been charged in connection with this investigation, and no finding has been made against him, Ziggy Investments, Transnat Coachlines or Zentrafor Fuel. Southafriworld did not seek comment from any of them.
Inside Politics reported that the proclamation opens “the way for possible recovery or forfeiture of assets if wrongdoing” and losses to the state are established. The SIU is separately empowered under the SIU Act to bring civil proceedings in the High Court or a Special Tribunal in its own name.
What it means for commuters
NTI was founded in 1973 and became a central provider of public transport in what is now the North West, expanding into Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Gauteng. Its mandate is subsidised passenger transport.
Operations collapsed earlier this year amid unpaid salaries and the withdrawal of subcontractors, leaving commuters without service for more than six months. NTI acting group chief executive officer Dr Ntlhopeng Dikobe has said operations have since resumed at approximately 40% capacity, with around 160 buses running across Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and parts of the North West.
The Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport has been considering terminating its contract with NTI over sustained underperformance. Doing so would trigger a fresh procurement process, which carries its own risk of disruption for passengers who depend on the network.
The North West Government is the sole shareholder and carries the decision on whether to stabilise the entity or dispose of it.
What has not happened
The SIU has given no timeframe for the investigation and no indication of when it will report.
The proclamation’s number was not stated in the SIU’s own release on the NTI matter, and published accounts differ on it. The SIU’s statement identifies Proclamation 348 of 2026 as the separate amendment extending its existing investigation into the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality’s security and VIP protection contracts, which was originally authorised under Proclamation 226 of 2024. That amendment now covers contract numbers CMS 0031, 1C 15104, 1C 18709, 1C 20359, 1X 31747 and 1C 29300, together with subsequent extensions, variations and payments.
Several things are unresolved. No value has been placed on the NTI contracts under investigation beyond the R168 million tender figure reported by other outlets. The business rescue practitioner has not been named in the proclamation. No response from NTI, the North West Government or any named company had been published at the time of writing. Southafriworld has previously reported on the deployment of soldiers against organised crime as part of the wider enforcement response.
The next public step would be either an SIU report to the President or civil proceedings brought in the unit’s own name.
