Latest news with #IndependentDevelopmentTrust
Eyewitness News
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Eyewitness News
Family trust of suspended IDT CEO Tebogo Malaka believes she's been set up to lose her job
CAPE TOWN - The family trust of suspended CEO of the Independent Development Trust (IDT) Tebogo Malaka said she's part of an orchestrated campaign to remove her from her job. The Malaka family trust said the scandal that has erupted over her alleged attempts to bribe a journalist to stop investigating her was a trap. On Thursday, Public Works Minister Dean Macpherson laid a criminal complaint against Malaka for collusion, bribery and corruption - a week after she was suspended in connection with irregular tenders for oxygen supply to hospitals. But her family trust insists she's part of a set-up between the minister and journalist, Pieter-Louis Myburgh. ALSO READ: Macpherson says he suspects a wider network of corruption within IDT The Malaka family trust is questioning the legality of the hidden cameras that captured the meeting between Malaka, IDT spokesperson Phasha Makgolane and Myburgh on a wine farm in Stellenbosch. In explaining what is widely viewed from the extracted footage as a bribe being offered, Malaka said there was none, since no offer was made, no agreement was reached, and no money changed hands. Her family trust is demanding that all the footage of the meeting be released and an investigation be carried out into who installed the cameras and under what authority. 'Ms Malaka is being vilified not for wrongdoing, but for standing her ground. She deserves due process - not public trial by edited video and political theatre,' said family spokesperson, Ayanda Jele. According to the Regulation of the Interception of Communication Act - communication can only be intercepted if the person doing so, is party to the communication. Malaka's family is instead throwing Makgolane under the bus, saying he produced the R60,000 in cash and set up the meeting. 'Edited video and innuendo are not evidence. They are tactics of defamation,' reads the family statement. They said Malaka's only offence is clashing with Macpherson over the board and alleged administrative interference. Malaka said he's the one that must be investigated for allegedly colluding with journalists.
The South African
15 hours ago
- Politics
- The South African
IDT CEO fights back after damning bribery footage
Embattled Independent Development Trust (IDT) chief executive officer (CEO) Tebogo Malaka has denied allegations that she attempted to bribe an investigative journalist to halt a probe and 'negative' reports about her and the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure entity. This comes as Malaka and her spokesperson, Phasha Makgolane, were caught on camera allegedly trying to bribe Daily Maverick investigative journalist Pieter-Louis Myburgh to stop reporting about investigations into Malaka. Malaka was suspended earlier this month following an investigation into an R800 million oxygen plant tender awarded by the IDT. In response to the backlash, the Malaka Family Trust stated that the IDT CEO did not offer a bribe, did not suggest one, and did not authorise any money. Moreover, she did not invite the investigative journalist and didn't even know him prior the meeting. 'This was a trap – engineered by those and designed to entrap her, which raises the most critical, unanswered question: Who set up the hidden cameras, and why? The public deserves to know who orchestrated this recording and whether it was done legally, ethically, or as part of a political operation,' the family said in a statement. Earlier this year, reports surfaced that Macpherson, who has since opened a case against Malaka, allegedly bribed a journalist to write negatively about the IDT, hoping to replace Malaka with an individual aligned with his party, the Democratic Alliance (DA). The Malaka Family Trust echoed the same sentiments emphasising that the IDT CEO's offence was her refusal to submit to political pressure. 'Her clashes with Minister Dean Macpherson, including board disruptions and administrative interference are well documented. It is no coincidence that this manufactured scandal emerges in the midst of that power struggle. 'Allegations of coordination between the journalist and the minister must now be taken seriously. These claims, raised by civil society and multiple political parties require immediate and independent investigation.' Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1. Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X, and Bluesky for the latest news.
Daily Maverick
a day ago
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
AmaBhungane bids to challenge the Public Procurement Act
Procurement is the ground-zero of corruption and State Capture – that's why we are heading for the Constitutional Court. It's unlikely that you'll open any newspaper or scroll through a news website these days without seeing an article about corruption in a government tender process. Just this week, we read about how the CEO of Independent Development Trust tried to quash a story by promising Daily Maverick investigative journalist Pieter-Louis Myburgh that they could facilitate tenders for him and his contacts, and about how an ANC leader and KwaZulu-Natal Education MEC Sipho Hlomuka feels that criticisms about his wives benefiting from government tenders are an attempt to target him politically. Corruption has become endemic to South African public life, and procurement – the process by which government contracts for goods and services – is the abused cash-cow that feeds political and personal greed. We all know it. AmaBhungane has reported on procurement-related corruption since it was founded. We have highlighted everything from the Arms Deal payoffs to the pillaging of SOEs revealed by the #GuptaLeaks and Joburg's dodgy water tanker contracts. Every week, we receive tip-offs about irregular tenders and how certain people are benefiting from their proximity to those with political power and their largesse in awarding contracts big and small, or other benefits, such as funding. Advocate Andy Mothibi, head of the Special Investigating Unit, has said that up to 90% of the cases the SIU is investigating involve procurement-related corruption. Former Chief Justice Raymond Zondo dedicated much of his lengthy report on State Capture to procurement. He questioned how those responsible for creating and enforcing legislation and other systems to regulate procurement could have been so ineffective in curbing corruption. Was it because corruption is now embedded in the system – and both politicians and bureaucrats are positioned to distribute benefits not to the populace, but to the powerful? Because, despite it being impossible to ignore the scale of procurement-related corruption and the complete inability of our existing systems to stop it, South Africa's legislature and public administration were happy to sign off on a new procurement law that repeats the failings of the old system and does little to respond to the very real observations of former Chief Justice Zondo and others who painstakingly identified where those systems needed to be strengthened. Was it simply that Parliament and National Treasury could not be bothered to reimagine an effective procurement system that delivered efficiently and equitably and was structured to promote maximum transparency and accountability to expose and deter corruption? Or was it because any possibility of 'turning off the taps to tender corruption', as Judge Zondo so neatly put it, would hurt them all financially and politically? We have been following, participating in and writing on the development of the Public Procurement Act since 2020. At every possible stage, we have voiced our deep concerns that the system the Act creates does not contain sufficient safeguards. We fumed when Parliament rushed through the Bill before last year's elections, furious at the laughably short timeframes the MPs had to consider the draft Bill and the public submissions. We formally wrote to the President and asked him to consider sending the Bill back to the National Assembly to address what we (and our colleagues in the Procurement Reform Working Group) described as patently unconstitutional provisions. We were ignored. And now, supported by the Legal Resources Centre, we have applied to join the cases brought by the Premier of the Western Cape and the City of Cape Town to challenge the passing of the Act. This case is a narrow challenge, focusing on the procedure through which Parliament passed the Act and its failure to meaningfully facilitate public participation. As it concerns only whether Parliament acted constitutionally, it is a matter that can be heard only by the Constitutional Court. We still believe the content of the Act is flawed and unconstitutional – particularly in how it fails to create constitutionally compliant transparency and accountability systems – but in this case, our focus is on highlighting why Parliament's failings are fatal to the Act. In our founding affidavit, filed this week, we highlight our experience participating in the legislative process. We explain how representatives from National Treasury were responsible for collating the public submissions and presenting commentary on those submissions to Parliament – and how they admitted that they had considered only about 30% of the submissions received. We explain how one key chapter in the Bill – that on preferential procurement – was added after the submissions were received and so received no meaningful public engagement in the National Assembly. We explain how the MPs on the Standing Committee on Finance held oral hearings on the Bill only one day after receiving the written submissions from the public, and that even the Chair of the National Council of Provinces expressed concern that the Bill was being rushed through Parliament before the 2024 elections. We explain how key issues raised in the public submissions were merely 'noted' by MPs and never engaged with. We submit that the Bill should never have been passed in the way it was and that Parliament clearly violated its constitutional obligations to ensure the public has a meaningful opportunity to influence the content of legislation. To us, this is an existential fight. The country cannot accommodate the current level of corruption in our public administration and cannot allow these levels to become normal and unremarked on. The Public Procurement Act takes a 'business as usual' approach: granting officials excessive discretion, resisting the medicine of transparency and relying excessively on the Treasury to police the system – an approach that has demonstrably failed. Crucially, the Act fails to provide strong mechanisms for proactive disclosure of procurement information to enable monitoring for the public interest. This perpetuates the dark fog in government procurement, making it a ripe environment for abuse. We at amaBhungane refuse to accept that corruption is simply the route to doing business with the state, and we will continue to challenge the procurement frameworks that facilitate and legitimise this form of business. Our application to join the cases challenging the manner in which the Act was adopted is merely the next (big) step in our long journey.
Daily Maverick
a day ago
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
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. It's been more than three years since the State Capture commission wrapped up its work. Precious little has been done in the way of prosecuting those responsible for pillaging this country's coffers. So woeful is this lethargy that even former Chief Justice Raymond Zondo recently lambasted President Cyril Ramaphosa 's government, a highly unusual step for someone in Zondo's position. Failing to act on past State Capture crimes is one thing. Sadly, though, it is starting to dawn on South Africans that our ongoing corruption crisis is as grievous as it had been when the Zuma-Gupta syndicate ruled the roost. Whistle-blowers and forensic investigators are being gunned down. Shady contractors with no real business bona fides still clinch huge government contracts. Our President, for some reason, keeps cash in his couches. The deputy president and his family sit on vast assets that they can't quite explain. Two of Ramaphosa's 'post-capture' ministers have been caught in huge graft scandals. One of them resigned from the Cabinet, but still ended up as a Member of Parliament. The other was simply reshuffled to a new portfolio. Recent allegations regarding our police service read like a horror story. Entire pockets of the police, along with the organisation's political custodians, may very well be in the clutches of criminals. It is in this unsettling milieu that Daily Maverick decided to investigate the Independent Development Trust (IDT), a lesser-known yet important state body that spends billions of rands on social infrastructure projects. Our investigation into the IDT's R836-million oxygen plants debacle led us ever deeper into the IDT and its CEO's affairs. Somewhere along this research journey, we must have triggered a very sensitive nerve. The IDT's spokesperson got in touch with our journalist. He said he had 'very sensitive' business to discuss. A first meeting ensued, one in which promises of tenders and cash payments dominated the conversation. The spokesperson, Phasha Makgolane, wanted to set up another meeting to seal the deal. Makgolane's boss, Tebogo Malaka, would avail herself for this second gathering, the spokesperson promised. This left Daily Maverick with a crucial decision to make: spurn whatever advances Makgolane had made up to that point, or string them along with the hope of documenting a most compelling instance of alleged bribery. We went for the latter option. It was a tack that was always guaranteed to spark some debate, even if it achieved its goal of exposing high-level malfeasance. Journalistic 'stings' aren't exactly unheard of, but they're certainly unusual. They involve deceit and covert tactics, plus a level of planning and resources that nowadays aren't readily available to newsrooms. But we strongly believe it was more than justified. In a normal world, it would not fall to journalists to conduct sting operations, complete with hidden cameras and surveillance. But these are not normal times. In normal times, action would be swift off the back of the evidence presented. In normal times, the systems which should hold power to account would react. An arrest warrant issued. But, these are not normal times. The action of the IDT's CEO and her spokesperson is an assault on the fourth estate, a vital pillar of a functioning democracy, and on freedom of expression. Corruption, particularly within state entities such as the IDT, diverts public funds, undermines service delivery and erodes trust in governance. Journalists are not merely reporters; they are conduits of information essential for citizens to hold their leaders accountable. But these are not normal times. To accept a bribe, or to simply walk away from such an offer without exposing it, would be a betrayal of this fundamental responsibility. It would also be a betrayal if we stopped there. Good journalism plays the role of a watchdog – shining a light on abuse of power, corruption and injustice – not enforcing the law. But in these abnormal times, it falls to us to act in self defence and hold the line. To risk our lives to expose the truth. In another time, when the other three pillars of a democracy are functioning at strength, our job would be done. But history has shown that exposure is not enough. So while we strive against becoming political actors or activists, we cannot maintain a passive role when journalism is the target of bad actors intent on snuffing out our torches. To safeguard our independence, freedom of expression and to fight against this tendency to bribe journalists, Daily Maverick will be taking legal steps in the form of criminal charges against our would-be bribers. Anything less is a dereliction of our duty. DM Jillian Green is the Editor-in-Chief of Daily Maverick and Pieter-Louis Myburgh Daily Maverick's senior investigative journalist.
Daily Maverick
a day ago
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Inside the investigation: Pieter-Louis Myburgh on reporting the IDT CEO bribery scandal
In this episode of Power Chat, Daily Maverick's Rebecca Davis speaks with investigative journalist Pieter-Louis Myburgh about his recent exposé on Independent Development Trust's suspended CEO, Tebogo Malaka, and her attempt to bribe him. Myburgh unpacks how the story developed, what led him to a face-to-face meeting with Malaka and her spokesperson in a Western Cape restaurant, and the behind-the-scenes steps taken to expose the truth.
