PetroSA’s multi-billion rand offshore gas deal thwarted by unpaid soccer player

• In December 2023, PetroSA entrusted a potential R21.6-billion gas infrastructure deal to notorious wheeler dealer Lawrence Mulaudzi. 
• Three months later the deal was dead, killed not by environmental groups or Russian sanctions, but by 34-year-old soccer player Cheslyn Chase Jampies.

Last year, Jampies asked the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Johannesburg to liquidate Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila Football Club (TTM), after the club failed to pay his R35,000 a month salary.

With time and interest, Jampies’ claim against the club rose from R70,000 to R725,000.

TTM, which is owned by Mulaudzi, failed to oppose the case. And on 7 March this year, the court ordered that TTM be placed in final liquidation.

Records from the National Soccer League, filed in Jampies’ case, show that Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila Football Club (Pty) Ltd is NOT the legal entity behind the club. Instead, Mulaudzi registered the club in the name of his investment company, Equator Holdings (Pty) Ltd.

This is where PetroSA and the R21.6-billion gas deal comes in.

Gas baron

In January 2023, Equator bid for the R3.7-billion contract to refurbish PetroSA’s gas-to-liquids refinery in Mossel Bay (RFP 0001/2023). That deal went to Russia’s Gazprombank Africa. But Equator bid for and won an even bigger contract: RFP 0004/2023 to finance and refurbish PetroSA’s offshore gas infrastructure, at a potential cost of R21.6-billion.

A joint venture between Equator and another company, Theza Oil and Gas, was also appointed to develop PetroSA’s offshore gas wells.

The two deals meant Mulaudzi was poised to become one of the most significant players in the gas industry, with control over offshore gas wells and the infrastructure to bring the gas onshore.

In our original investigation, we pointed out that Equator had been eliminated from the Gazprombank tender – scoring 0 out of 100 – because the “[a]uthenticity of entity could not be established”, making the decision to hand it two other deals highly suspect.

In January this year, Mulaudzi told us: “We are … pleased as a company to enter into this partnership with PetroSA which will provide security of gas supply and unlock infrastructure bottlenecks in the energy space for [the]South African economy… We have every intention to deliver, and we will!”

What was not apparent at the time was that PetroSA had just awarded two multibillion-rand gas infrastructure deals to a soccer club that now plays in the third division Motsepe League.

No assets worth mentioning

In terms of the Gas Financing and Infrastructure agreement, signed with PetroSA in December, Mulaudzi’s Equator Holdings would have until 8 June 2024 to show that it could secure a funding commitment for the refurbishment project, estimated by PetroSA to require R21.6-billion.

Unbeknown to PetroSA, however, Equator Holdings could not even come up with R725,000 to pay Jampies.

“If you can’t properly run a football club that’s worth about a few million, how are you going to juggle R21.6-billion?” the former Bafana Bafana player told us in a recent interview.

Author: Susan Comrie