IDT CEO Tebogo Malaka's mansion and the unpaid EPWP workers: key takeaways
A contractor to the Independent Development Trust (IDT) paid at least R200,000 towards a new house in an upmarket residential estate currently being built for suspended IDT CEO Tebogo Malaka.
Daily Maverick's months-long investigation identified two transfers from businessman Collen Mashawana towards the construction of Malaka's new house inside Gauteng's Waterfall Country Estate.
At the time of the first transfer, Malaka was still firmly in her job as CEO, and the IDT was on the verge of appointing Mashawana's charitable foundation for an employment scheme funded by the government's Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).
Read the full investigation
The Collen Mashawana Foundation (CMF) ended up getting by far the largest portion of the IDT's EPWP spend for the previous and current financial years, trumping more than 400 other nonprofits. The foundation was appointed to employ and manage nearly 1,800 EPWP workers across five provinces. The allocations shocked stakeholders familiar with the IDT's EPWP initiatives, seeing as the CMF has no track record in managing an employment scheme of this magnitude.
Our investigation unearthed two alarming sets of developments that unfolded in the same timeframe. First, the CMF short-changed or failed to pay hundreds of its EPWP workers.
Second, Collen Mashawana himself became directly involved in a R16-million project to build the IDT CEO's new house in the Waterfall Country Estate, acting as something of a project manager. Mashawana also made at least two payments towards Malaka's property.
The EPWP workers' outstanding salaries, and Mashawana's simultaneous involvement in the Waterfall development, raises serious questions. Were the workers' hard-earned wages perhaps diverted to the IDT CEO's new mansion?
The foundation has come out to strongly deny any impropriety.
'The Collen Mashawana Foundation (CMF) strongly refutes the misleading implications published in a recent article by the Daily Maverick, which seeks to connect the Foundation's implementation of the Expanded Public Works Program (EPWP) to alleged irregularities involving the suspended IDT CEO, Ms. Tebogo Malaka,' it said in a statement released on Monday, 11 August 2025.
However, our investigation identified several transactions and related factors that raise alarm bells.
Satellite images of Malaka's stand, coupled with WhatsApp correspondence and other records, helped us to craft a reliable timeline of progress at the building project. Thanks to our bundle of evidence, we know that all major works for the new house only kicked off after the IDT had transferred millions of rands to the CMF. The CMF, meanwhile, was not using these funds for its intended purpose, namely paying the EPWP workers their rightful salaries;
Collen Mashawana made at least two payments towards Malaka's property, totalling R200,000. The payments were made through two different companies controlled by the businessman. Mashawana made the first payment in July 2024, while the IDT was still considering his foundation's EPWP bid. The businessman made the second known payment in April this year, shortly after the CMF had banked substantial payments from the IDT; and
Mashawana appointed a company called Two Putswa Maeba Construction and Projects as the main contractor for Malaka's new house. Two Putswa had to pay for all manner of materials and services related to the project. The contractor on several occasions settled invoices shortly after the IDT transferred funds to Mashawana's foundation. In one instance, Two Putswa fell behind on its payments for leasing a construction container. It later settled the bill, the very next day after the CMF received R1.1-million from the IDT.
As progress continued at Malaka's Waterfall property, the CMF's EPWP workers started taking the nonprofit and the IDT to task over the problems with their wages.
To date, the IDT has transferred at least R23-million to the foundation, but much of this money was not used for its intended purpose.
The alleged misappropriation of these funds is seemingly affirmed by a Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) probe.
A group of more than 200 EPWP workers from Kgotsong in the Free State took the Collen Mashawana Foundation to the CCMA.
The CCMA considered the group's evidence and in April this year ruled that the foundation had failed to pay them for five months.
The CMF collectively owes this group nearly R1.7-million in outstanding salaries. To date, however, the foundation has failed to comply with the CCMA's decision, further fuelling the group's resentment and frustration.
In all, the CMF had nearly 1,800 workers on its payroll for the IDT initiative. They were from Gauteng, Limpopo, North West, the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal.
The group worked at rubbish dumps, cleaned streets, parks and other public spaces, among other tasks assigned to them. On average, the workers were supposed to earn about R1,700 per month.
Daily Maverick also identified scores of workers from Limpopo and elsewhere in the Free State who received only small portions of their rightful salaries. In some instances, the CMF failed to pay the workers anything at all.
Malaka chose not to respond to any of the queries we put to her.
Collen Mashawana received a set of nearly twenty detailed queries but provided only a broad denial of any impropriety.
'It will not be appropriate for me to defend myself in the media on unsubstantiated and untested allegations,' said the businessman. DM
This investigation was made possible by funding from the Henry Nxumalo Foundation, an independent nonprofit company that supports investigative journalism in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent.
Some of the satellite images used for this investigation are from Airbus Space and Defence's Pléiades Neo satellite and were generously supplied to us by the company.
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