South Africa: Unaccountable 00046 - Eric Wood At the Centre of a Stalled Reckoning Over Transnet Billions

22 April 2026
Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)
By Luvano Ntuli and Michael Marchant for Open Secrets

Eric Wood is emblematic of the one step forward, two steps back path to accountability for State Capture in SA. Wood - former director of Regiments and Trillian - was arrested and appeared in court on 27 May 2022 to face charges linked to State Capture at Transnet. Nearly four years later, his trial has yet to start.

Eric Wood is accused of enabling and benefitting from millions of rand of unlawful payments made by Transnet and Eskom to Regiments and Trillian. Wood, along with former Transnet officials Garry Pita, Siyabonga Gama and Phetolo Ramosebudi, and Trillian executive Daniel Roy, were arrested on 27 May 2022, after handing themselves over at Brackendowns police station in Johannesburg. Another co-accused, so-called "Gupta fixer" Kuben Moodley, was arrested in September 2021 at OR Tambo International Airport just before he boarded a flight to Dubai.

Since then, further arrests have been made and more charges filed, including against State Capture big fish Brian Molefe and Anoj Singh. The group of now 13 co-accused - including Wood - face charges in the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Johannesburg that include corruption, fraud, money laundering and violations of the Public Finance Management Act. These charges relate to various deals and transactions linked to the infamous procurement of 1,064 locomotives by Transnet.

The evidence in the case against Wood and his co-accused includes a staggering 55 terabytes of information, but numerous delays have obstructed accountability.

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February 2026 marked the latest delay in the case. The latest delays are at the request...

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