You have heard of State Capture – read on to find out about Crumb Capture:
Yesterday the Executive Mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality released the following statement:
The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality proudly welcomes the landmark 10-year agreement between Transnet and United Manganese of Kalahari (UMK), a powerful vote of confidence in South Africa’s logistics infrastructure and a significant win for our metro, which stands as the country’s premium exporter of manganese.
“We commend Transnet’s commitment to reliability, reform, and inclusive growth, and we stand ready as a municipality to work with all partners to ensure this sector continues to deliver meaningful development for our people. Indeed, this partnership is not just about the movement of minerals, it is about moving our economy forward,” added Executive Mayor Lobishe.
Not only does this endorsement fly in the face of what every single citizen of the Metro (except those ‘in the closet’ manganese truck owners and gravy train recipients) has vociferously called for an end to. This poorly managed logistics and delivery industry continues to pollute our waterways, roads, lungs and marine animals whilst creating massive potholes and leaves manganese ore littering our streets.
Fly over Nelson Mandela Bay, look out the window and see exactly where the dirt line starts, ends and circles back as these trucks pound our roads 24/7 at the rate of one a minute.
Established in 2005, UMK is a 51% black owned company and, is the 4th largest manganese producer in South Africa. The ANC’s Chancellor House Holdings holds an indirect 22% stake in UMK through its investment in MST which holds 51% of UMK.
One of the first lessons in journalism is “follow the money” and that is just what the Amabhungane investigative unit did in 2022 when they published this article: ANC’s manganese ‘gold’ mine joint venture with sanctioned Russian oligarch.
Lets be honest here: The ANC is looking at the 2026 local elections with trepidation and looking to shore up it’s support wherever possible. And that takes money, lots of it!
The best way to secure campaign money is to use whatever influence one has as the ruling party to blow smoke up campaign contributors and potential contributors collective rear ends!
In 2020 financial records from Cyprus showed that UMK paid out a staggering R2.4-billion in dividends in 2020 and that the ANC’s Chancellor House’s indirect 22% share in the 2020 dividends would have amounted to R528-million. This after a year of favourable manganese prices in 2019, prevailing prices probably resulted in similar distributable profits in subsequent years.
The windfall eradicated Chancellor House’s debt and helped it to increase its stake in the extremely profitable mining company by buying out another shareholder.
This UMK deal with Transnet could therefore not have come at a better time for the local ANC to stake a claim on the dividends from UMK paid to Chancellor House.
Ownership of United Manganese of Kalahari (UMK), established in 2005, operating in the Northern Cape Province, is split between two entities:
- Viktor Vekselberg – a Russian Oligarch
- ANC – South Africa’s Ruling Party
The convoluted ownership structure works as follows:
- Viktor Vekselberg owns Renova Innovation (Bahamas) which owns 48.8% of Mineral Mining Consulting (Cypress) which owns 100% of News African Manganese Investments (Cypress) which owns 49% of UMK
- The African National Congress ‘funds’ Chancellor House (South Africa) which owns 43.5% of Majestic Silver Trading (South Africa) which owns 51% of UMK.
Understandably the make up of this convoluted ownership profile raises serious concerns about accountability, transparency, and the capture of public developmental mandates for private and political enrichment.
Just in case you were curious: CLICK HERE to see just how many ‘NON Cypriots’ appear on the Board of Directors for UMK
Related Reading: 2025 Magojaneng Case Study – issued by Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA) who present a formidable point of opposition against the toxic alliance between mining companies and the government in South Africa. In the report MACUA make reference to; “The audit findings confirm a pattern of Crumb Capture, where mining companies implement symbolic, often dysfunctional projects that lack sustainability, visibility, or community ownership — publicly branded, yet functionally inaccessible and out of sync with community priorities.”
