The connection among Robert Gumede, HPX’s owner Robert Friedland and Peter Pham relative to the Liberty Corridor Project has raised series of questions about the credibility of Liberia’s investment climate and the integrity of large-scale infrastructure deals in the country.
Last year, the South African Special Investigating Unit (SIU) filed a case at the Special Tribunal seeking to reclaim R390 million from billionaire businessman Robert Gumede over an allegedly fraudulent and overpriced personal protective equipment (PPE) contract awarded during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The contract, valued at nearly R600 million, was granted to Red Roses Africa (also operating as Mainstreet 699), a company registered in Mpumalanga and linked to Gumede through his nephew and business associate, Blessing Qwabe.
The SIU’s application, filed on March 26, positions Gumede at the center of what investigators describe as an unlawful and unconstitutional procurement deal with the South African Police Service (SAPS). The SIU demands that Gumede, Qwabe and Red Roses repay R390,754,000 plus interest within 30 days of a successful ruling by the tribunal, citing it as an “unlawful overcharge”.
Despite having four months to respond, Gumede and his associates delayed to file formal answering affidavits. Instead, they mounted an aggressive defense, dismissing the SIU’s case as “baseless and unsubstantiated” and accusing the chief forensic investigator, Jackey Mathabathe, of perjury.
The SIU’s case builds upon an earlier investigation by Daily Maverick in 2021, which first exposed the controversial PPE deal. According to the SIU, on March 25, 2020—just five days after President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster—Gumede wrote to National Treasury official, Molefe Fani, lobbying for the procurement of PPE from Red Roses Africa. In his letter, Gumede claimed his company was strategically positioned to deliver high-quality, internationally certified PPE on an emergency basis.
However, SIU investigators alleged that this representation was false. Among the key claims made in their affidavit were false promises of direct imports: Gumede allegedly told SAPS that the PPE would be imported via a “specially chartered Airbus” from China. The SIU says there was no such aircraft or available stock; local resale at exorbitant prices: instead of importing PPE, Red Roses allegedly sourced sanitizers and masks from local suppliers, including dis-chem, before reselling them to SAPS at inflated rates. A 25-liter vat of hand sanitizer, for example, was bought for R1,150 but sold to SAPS for R5,405, representing a 370% gross profit; failure to deliver the full order: while Red Roses was contracted to supply 90,000 units of hand sanitizer and 12 million masks, the SIU claims that only two million masks were delivered; and substandard products: random SAPS quality checks found that some sanitizers had alcohol content below the required 70% standard.
Furthermore, the SIU traces the post-payment distribution of funds, alleging that large sums were funneled through a network of companies linked to Gumede, with no clear evidence of value provided to SAPS. Among the recipients, Gumede reportedly received R4.2 million, while his nephew Qwabe was paid R250,987.
Beyond the corruption allegations in South Africa, Gumede’s business dealings extend into the mining and infrastructure sectors in Liberia, where he is positioning himself as a major player in Robert Friedland’s and Peter Pham’s proposed investments in Guinea and Liberia.
Gumede has been linked to the infrastructure financing discussions surrounding High Power Exploration (HPX), a company led by Friedland, which is spearheading the development of the Liberty Corridor—a multi-billion-dollar railway and port project intended to facilitate the export of Guinean iron ore through Buchanan, Liberia.
According to HPX, the project is an estimated investment of US$3—US$5 billion, and will enable sustainable mineral development and downstream value addition to regional economies.
HPX and Guma Africa Group would then enter into negotiations with the Government of Liberia (GOL) to agree on the framework granting exclusive rights to develop, finance and grant operating rights to the Liberty Corridor.
Gumede’s past involvement in controversial government contracts raises concerns over transparency and the legitimacy of business interests shaping this project.
Both Friedland and Pham have aggressively promoted HPX’s plan, emphasizing its potential to transform the regional economy. However, given Gumede’s history of procurement-related controversies, his involvement in any aspect of the Liberty Corridor’s financing or execution could warrant further scrutiny.
As the owner of the Guma Group, which includes IT firm Gijima, Gumede wields considerable political influence in South Africa as an African National Congress (ANC) funder. The SIU alleges that intense lobbying efforts are underway to pressure its leadership to drop the case.
The SIU affidavit presents a damning conclusion: “These respondents, through their insatiable greed, have directly or indirectly caused unnecessary deaths of frontline police officers and have certainly resulted in the theft of SAPS funds.”
Gumede and Qwabe, however, maintain that the investigation is politically motivated and built on falsehoods. They have yet to back their claims with sworn affidavits, raising questions about their legal strategy.
As scrutiny intensifies over Gumede’s dealings, his ties to major infrastructure projects like HPX’s Liberty Corridor could invite deeper investigations into whether the same procurement patterns exposed in the South African PPE scandal might manifest in West Africa’s high-stakes mining sector.