The murder of Vereeniging engineering company employee Armand Swart came just two weeks after the firm blew the whistle on mammoth Transnet tender price inflation that saw the cost of a single contract gouged by more than 4 500%.

News24 reports that Swart was shot 23 times in a case of mistaken identity in April, with the hit intended for a colleague at the company.

Two weeks before his murder, the Vaal-based engineering company discovered an innocuous railway spring they produced and sold for R3.20 had then been sold on to Transnet with a price tag of R152.

With the state-owned freight and logistics company buying a consignment of 8 000 of the springs, a R25 000 purchase morphed into one worth more than R1.2m.

Alleged triggermen, Tlego Floyd Mabusela, Musa Kekana and 30-year veteran Johannesburg detective Michael Pule Tau, were arrested on the day of Swart's killing, and now face charges of murder, conspiracy and others related to an arsenal of illegal weapons found in their possession.

If the state's case against the three proves true, Tau was the nexus of a prolific hit squad that was paid R1m to eliminate the engineering company's manager after dubious pricing irregularities were formally reported.

Full News24 report