SA's energy one-stop shop projects for IPPs faces hurdles as US funding withdraws
Image: Henk Kruger/Independent Newspapers
Banele Ginidza
The establishment of the Energy One Stop Shop (EOSS) project, an initiative aimed at revolutionising South Africa's renewable energy sector, is currently in limbo due to a significant funding shortfall.
Yunus Hoosen, head of Invest South Africa (InvestSA), disclosed to Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry on Wednesday that the project was seeking an additional R60 million to continue its rollout across all provinces.
The setback follows the withdrawal of funding from the United States under former President Donald Trump's Executive Orders.
"We have done the functional specs. We have been funded by donor agencies. We lost a little bit of funding from the US but we continue to talk to a number of other donors to see how we can get this programme going. Its is R60m and we intend to finalise and launch this in the fourth quarter of 2026," Hoosen said.
"What we plan to do is to have a one-stop shop in every province. We have them in three provinces and the one at the dtic [campus]. We are ready to roll out Eastern Cape and Limpopo. The Northern Cape is undergoing refurbishment, following that is Mpumalanga. We just need to do the work and sort out the one-stop shop in the Free State and the North West."
The EOSS was envisioned as a solution to the myriad challenges facing Independent Power Producers (IPPs) in the renewable energy landscape, working collaboratively with multiple government departments to simplify regulatory processes.
It's designed to provide guidance and support, enabling IPPs to navigate the complex authorisation landscape while effectively reporting progress and challenges to the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic) and various National Energy Crisis Committee (NECOM) structures.
Collaboration plays a key role in the EOSS's success, and the programme works closely with private sector partners and industry associations, including Business Unity South Africa (Busa), the South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA), and the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association (SAPVIA), among others.
However, the rollout has experienced delays, which Hoosen attributed to changes in executive leadership within coordinating entities, including CEOs and chief financial officers.
"We also face delays from provincial government frameworks. That has happened in the Free State. We could have rolled out a long time ago in the Free State," Hoosen said.
Despite these challenges, the EOSS has already unlocked various projects, such as a 9.8MW biogas facility supplying the BMW plant in Tshwane, and enabling the realisation of 70MW of biogas in the Free State.
Hoosen noted that as of December 2024, the overall achievements of the IPP programme included more than R239 billion in investments across 104 projects, facilitating the generation of just under 8 000MW of electricity.
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Support Daily Maverick Mashawana's money The two known payments Mashawana made towards Malaka's new house cements his questionable role as one of the project's key actors. In the last week of July 2024, Mashawana transferred roughly R100,000 to the engineer working on Malaka's house, using one of the myriad entities registered in his name. The payment was made by Luande Mukhethwa Properties. At the time, Mashawana was the company's sole director. Considering what was happening at the IDT during this period, this payment warrants scrutiny. At the time of the transfer, the IDT was still considering the Collen Mashawana Foundation's EPWP bid. In fact, mere days before the transfer, the IDT's programme managers and supply chain management (SCM) administrators were still signing off on tender checklists and other documentation. The Collen Mashawana Foundation's bid would no doubt have crossed their desks. On 14 August 2024, less than three weeks after Mashawana paid the engineer, the IDT's Management Bid Adjudication Committee (MBAC) approved bids from 421 non-profits for the roll-out of EPWP projects across South Africa's nine provinces. Because of what was happening at the IDT at the time, Mashawana's payment towards Malaka's property is a big red flag. The IDT's spend for these initiatives in the 2024-25 financial year would amount to roughly R700-million, benefiting some 44,000 unemployed South Africans. The Collen Mashawana Foundation somehow secured the largest chunk of the IDT's EPWP budget. By all accounts, this was a startling development as the foundation lacked experience in managing employment schemes of this magnitude. Also, it had never participated in the IDT's EPWP initiatives before. The uneven distribution of EPWP funds was especially pronounced in Limpopo. Records in our possession reveal that Mashawana's foundation secured funding to employ 700 individuals in this province, at a cost of nearly R13-million. The Collen Mashawana Foundation was among 70 non-profits appointed in Limpopo. None of the other organisations received nearly as much funding as that reserved for Mashawana's non-profit. The NGO with the second highest allocation in the province was given only R2.5-million, less than a fifth of the Collen Mashawana Foundation's allocation. Shock over allocations Shock over the allocations reverberated throughout the IDT and the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI), the IDT's parent department. Daily Maverick has seen communications between IDT and DPWI officials in which the allocations were questioned and sharply criticised. Local NGOs in Limpopo were just as stunned. 'I've been involved with the IDT's EPWP work in Limpopo for many years now, and this is the first time one organisation was given so many participants to manage. It is entirely out of the norm, and we are all questioning how this happened,' said one source, a manager at one of the Limpopo NGOs. According to another source, the IDT in previous years distributed the allocations far more evenly among the qualifying organisations. In KwaZulu-Natal, meanwhile, Mashawana's non-profit trumped 128 other NGOs to win the biggest chunk of the IDT's EPWP spend for the province. 'It is entirely out of the norm, and we are all questioning how this happened.' It also got the most funding in North West, beating 43 other non-profits. The IDT appointed 14 non-profits for the Free State. The Collen Mashawana Foundation was among only two NGOs in the province that received more than R7-million in funding. Only in Gauteng did the foundation's allocation roughly align with the average spend per NGO. We scrutinised a dataset for the IDT's EPWP allocation in all nine provinces. The records confirm that the Collen Mashawana Foundation was alone among the 421 non-profits in securing funding for five provinces. A handful of organisations were appointed to work in three provinces, but their funding allocations came to only a quarter of that reserved for Mashawana's foundation. Mashawana's second Waterfall payment In early April 2025, the project engineer for Malaka's new house received a second payment from Mashawana, also totalling about R100,000. The payment was made through an entity called Orinea Trucking. This company also listed Mashawana as its sole director. The circumstances in which the payment was made warrants close scrutiny. The same can be said for several other transactions that we'll unpack below. According to financial records in our possession, the IDT in March this year made three payments to the Collen Mashawana Foundation for its EPWP work in the Free State, totalling R1.68-million. The last of the three payments amounted to R572,000, and it was transferred to the foundation on 31 March. Only four days later, the engineer for the Waterfall project received his second payment from Mashawana's Orinea Trucking. 'They stole from us' We have no evidence that the engineer had been paid with the EPWP funds. However, what we can say with certainty is that the Collen Mashawana Foundation was not using the money for its intended purpose, at least not all of it. As mentioned, the March transfers were meant for the foundation's workers in the Free State. Our investigation identified scores of EPWP participants in the province who weren't receiving their wages. Daily Maverick travelled to the Kgotsong township outside Bothaville in June. 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However, in September, when their salaries for the previous month were finally paid, the Kgotsong participants were shocked to see that the foundation had transferred a measly R366 into their bank accounts. We obtained multiple sets of bank statements to verify the workers' claims. 'The Collen Mashawana Foundation told us there were some problems with the funds and the paperwork they submitted to the IDT. They promised that we would get our full salaries at a later point,' explained Katleho Mokolutlo, a 29-year-old mother of three who relied on the EPWP work to feed her children. It is highly doubtful that the Collen Mashawana Foundation would have had any cause to withhold portions of the workers' salaries. Mashawana's foundation claimed more than R1,300 from the IDT for each EPWP worker's salary in August, yet paid them only R366 Financial records confirm that the IDT in September 2024 transferred nearly R3.3-million to the foundation. This included nearly R1-million specifically earmarked for EPWP participants in the Free State, including those from Kgotsong. What's more, the IDT released the funds on the back of attendance registers and payment sheets signed by all 494 workers in the Free State, copies of which have been shared with us. The Collen Mashawana Foundation had no rightful reason to use the monies for any purpose other than paying the EPWP participants their full salaries. The Kgotsong group nevertheless kept on working, hoping that the discrepancy would eventually be addressed. But matters only got worse. The Collen Mashawana Foundation paid them their salaries for September and October, but after that the money simply dried up. 'It was terrible, doing all that work and then not getting our money. Many of us went to bed hungry' 'Our contracts said we would work until the end of March [2025], but we didn't get a cent for the work we did after October 2024,' explained Ramosalioahae Mothibeli. Known to fellow Kgotsong locals simply as Ramos, this 28-year-old was one of the participants who'd taken it upon themselves to fight the group's cause. Frustrated and angry, Ramos and a few others travelled to Bloemfontein in February for a meeting at the IDT's regional offices. Austin Mashawana, the non-profit's chief operating officer (COO) and Collen's younger brother, also attended the meeting. Mashawana allegedly told Ramos and his colleagues that the IDT had terminated the EPWP contract. 'We knew this couldn't be true,' Ramos told Daily Maverick. 'We knew the programme had to run until the end of March and that the IDT couldn't simply cut the funding.' Ortman Kgathatso (31) and Isaac Setsoho (27), two more EPWP participants from Kgotsong, said the foundation exploited them. 'They probably thought we didn't know our rights. But we know our rights. We signed contracts to work from August [2024] to March [2025],' said Kgathatso. 'It was terrible, doing all that work and then not getting our money. Many of us went to bed hungry,' added Setsoho. When Daily Maverick met some of the workers at the Kgotsong community centre, things at times got somewhat heated. 'They stole from us! They are thieves!' one of the participants shouted, much to the agreement of his fellow workers. Spur Wednesdays Considering the general mood Daily Maverick observed in Kgotsong, it was probably for the best that the IDT CEO or representatives from the Collen Mashawana Foundation never met with the entire group. However, Malaka and Austin Mashawana very nearly did just that. Throughout January 2025, Ramos and some of the other Kgotsong participants kept up the pressure. They made direct contact with the IDT CEO. They were in touch with the Collen Mashawana Foundation's COO too, asking him when they would receive their salaries. At the beginning of March, Malaka and Austin Mashawana drove to Bothaville, no doubt hoping to douse the growing resentment. A series of Whatsapp exchanges, coupled with a few source accounts, represent the most reliable record of the day's events. It was a Wednesday, and Malaka and Mashawana arrived in Bothaville shortly after 3pm. They wanted Ramos and just a handful of his fellow participants to meet them at the municipal offices in town. However, Ramos and his colleagues insisted that the meeting should take place at the library in Kgotsong. They wanted the IDT CEO and the foundation's COO to face the group's collective frustration. In the end, though, Malaka and Mashawana refused to travel to the township. Instead, they spent the afternoon inside Bothaville's Spur restaurant. As soon as they realised that they couldn't convince Ramos to come and meet them in town, Malaka and Mashawana drove back to Gauteng. 'The meeting didn't end up happening because they refused coming here, feeling all scared of the 'mob',' Mokolutlo suggested when we met the group in June. Shortly before our trip to Bothaville, Daily Maverick met Austin Mashawana at the foundation's offices in Rivonia, Johannesburg. He said there had been 'hiccups' and 'teething problems' with the programme, but he claimed the Kgotsong workers had received all the monies that were due to them. This, as we'll see, was not quite true. We asked Mashawana why he and Malaka didn't meet the group in Kgotsong. 'We thought it was unsafe,' he said. CCMA The Kgotsong group weren't going to let the matter go that easily. One week after Malaka and Austin Mashawana's fruitless trip to Bothaville, Ramos and 207 of his fellow EPWP workers lodged a complaint with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) in nearby Welkom. The commissioner considered the group's evidence. In April, he ruled that the Collen Mashawana Foundation had indeed failed to pay them their salaries. They were owed money for the wages they should have earned from November 2024 to March this year. The CCMA ordered the foundation to pay its workers their outstanding salaries, totalling nearly R1.7-million. To date, however, the non-profit has not complied with the decision. Free State and beyond Failing to pay more than 200 EPWP workers is egregious enough. Sadly, though, the issue wasn't limited to the Kgotsong group. Our investigation identified scores more people elsewhere in the Free State who suffered the same fate. We also found plenty of workers from other provinces who'd allegedly been ripped off by the Collen Mashawana Foundation. Upcoming reports will take us to rural Limpopo, to the villages that line the North West provinces's border with Botswana, and to the Free State's Goldfields region. In each of these areas, the Collen Mashawana Foundation ran EPWP schemes on behalf of the IDT. While the foundation claimed and received funds from the IDT, the workers were being short-changed. In some instances, they weren't getting paid at all. We believe there exists sufficient circumstantial evidence to entertain the notion that some of the EPWP funds went towards Malaka's property. The most pressing riddle to solve, then, is what the foundation was doing with the monies it had banked from the IDT. Were the funds perhaps diverted to Malaka's Waterfall property? We believe there exists sufficient circumstantial evidence to at least entertain this notion. As demonstrated earlier, one of Mashawana's companies paid Malaka's engineer shortly after the IDT had paid the businessman's foundation. To conclude this piece, we'll unpack additional developments and transactions that give us more reason to be concerned. The container payments Satellite images, written correspondence and vital information gleaned from sources make up the various puzzle pieces that allowed us to put together an interesting picture concerning Malaka's Waterfall property. The stand had been cleared of vegetation in June 2024, but the project only really kicked into gear in October, after the Collen Mashawana Foundation had received its first payments from the IDT. Our investigation highlighted a remarkable concurrency of activity at the Waterfall property and the IDT's EPWP payments. During the second week of October, for instance, the IDT made a series of payments to the Collen Mashawana Foundation, totalling R3.6-million. Key developments regarding the Waterfall project unfolded the very next week. There was a site handover meeting attended by the contractor Mashawana handpicked for the project. Secondly, the project team submitted their building plans to the Waterfall Country Estate for approval. Finally, the architects, interior designers and other service providers were added to a Whatsapp group for the project. In short, work on Malaka's property had now kicked off in earnest, at the very moment when the Collen Mashawana Foundation's EPWP workers were asking why their initial salaries didn't add up. On 20 December, the Collen Mashawana Foundation received R1.1-million from the IDT. The next day, Two Putswa settled the outstanding rental fee and also made an advance payment for January's lease. Naturally, Malaka's contractor had to tend to all manner of costs relating to the new house. One such expense was for a construction container, one in which the contractor could safely store tools and equipment. We examined four payments the contractor, Two Putswa Maeba Construction and Projects, made for leasing the container. There is an uncanny proximity between these transactions and the payments Mashawana's foundation received from the IDT. On Thursday, 10 October 2024, the IDT transferred roughly R856,000 to the Collen Mashawana Foundation. By the following Friday, Two Putswa had paid nearly R3,500 to settle the first invoice for the container. The same thing would happen over the next few months. Only, the delay between the IDT's EPWP payments and Two Putswa's transfers for the container hire would get shorter and shorter. On 8 November 2024, a Friday, the IDT paid R1.23-million into the Collen Mashawana Foundation's account. The following Wednesday, more funds from Two Putswa reflected in the container company's account. Two Putswa's payment in December is especially interesting. The company had fallen behind on settling that month's invoice for the lease. On 20 December, the Collen Mashawana Foundation received R1.1-million from the IDT. The next day, Two Putswa settled the outstanding rental fee and also made an advance payment for January's lease. When the time came to settle the bill for February, Two Putswa again made the payment only one day after the IDT had transferred funds to the Collen Mashawana Foundation. The foundation received another R1.23-million from the IDT on the 12th of that month. The following day, Two Putswa paid nearly R1,000 for the lease. One of Two Putswa's more substantial payments towards Malaka's project also caught our eye. February's R1.23-million transfer was among four payments the Collen Mashawana Foundation received from the IDT towards the end of that month, totalling R2.3-million. In the week the payments were made, Two Putswa's director, Joshua Maseko, began working on quotes for large drainage pipes and related materials. The following week, Maseko's company paid roughly R11,000 to source the materials. Time will tell whether nor not these goods were bankrolled with IDT-linked funds. The same goes for Mashawana's own payments towards the Waterfall property. In the meantime, Malaka's close dealings with an IDT contractor is scandal enough to cast a deep shadow over her tenure as the entity's CEO. As for the EPWP workers' unpaid salaries: any law enforcement body worth its salt would immediately set out to probe this most woeful saga. DM * This investigation was made possible by funding from the Henry Nxumalo Foundation, an independent non-profit company that supports investigative journalism in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent. * Some of the satellite images are from Airbus Space and Defence's Pléiades Neo satellite and were generously supplied to us by the company. *Information and documents related to this story can be securely uploaded to Daily Maverick's encrypted tip-offs portal. On 28 August, Pieter-Louis Myburgh will take the stage at The Gathering 2025: Changemakers | Impact Edition to speak out for the first time on this explosive saga, share new insights and offer a rare behind-the-scenes look at how the story continues to unfold. If you want to be in the room for this, don't wait. Book your ticket now. * Not based in CT? Register here to attend virtually. This investigation was made possible by the support of our Maverick Insider members. It's their voluntary contributions that keep our journalism free for all South Africans to read. Isn't it time you joined them? Become a Maverick Insider IDT contractor ripped off workers, bankrolled Tebogo Malaka's new R16m property On 6 August 2025, Daily Maverick released a shocking video showing how suspended IDT CEO Tebogo Malaka tried to buy this journalist's silence with a wad of cash. Here is the story Malaka didn't want the public to see. Pieter-Louis Myburgh 11 August 2025 IDT CEO bribery scandal – How I ended up with R60,000 in a Dior bag Daily Maverick journalist Pieter-Louis Myburgh says he had a hunch that 'something nefarious' was afoot before his meeting with the suspended Independent Development Trust CEO and her spokesperson – who went on to offer him a wad of cash to suppress a continuing journalistic investigation. Victoria O'Regan 9 August 2025 Tebogo Malaka 'sting' – here's why Daily Maverick did it and what's next The action of the Independent Development Trust's CEO and her spokesperson is an assault on the fourth estate, a vital pillar of a functioning democracy, and on freedom of expression. Pieter-Louis Myburgh and Jillian Green 7 August 2025 Load More
