Latest news with #Pieter-LouisMyburgh
Daily Maverick
2 days ago
- Business
- Daily Maverick
The Weekend Wrap The IDT CEO scandal and a Power Chat with the journalist who caught it on camera. All in the weekend wrap.
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. By Pieter-Louis Myburgh and Jillian Green Suspended IDT CEO, spokesperson offer Daily Maverick journalist R60K in cash to quash investigation In possibly the most brazen act of attempted bribery ever recorded on camera in this country, the IDT's suspended CEO and the entity's spokesperson offered this journalist R60,000 in cash to bury an ongoing Daily Maverick investigation. By Pieter-Louis Myburgh 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. By Rebecca Davis Bribery bungle By Rico 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. By Victoria O'Regan Deputy President Paul Mashatile caught between luxury property, a shiny diamond and a hard place The ANC's National Executive Committee broke for an hour on Sunday to deliberate on allegations of impropriety swirling around Deputy President Paul Mashatile and Human Settlements Minister Thembi Simelane. By Marianne Thamm How to unlock your UIF benefits: dodge the delays, get your money Many Unemployment Insurance Fund applicants experience frustrating delays and confusing procedures. Knowing what documents you need and how to avoid the pitfalls can save you time. By Lisakanya Venna Mapped: Where coal pollution hits hardest in South Africa Daily Maverick's geo-journalism investigation reveals how Thubelihle in Mpumalanga and other townships suffer the worst of SA's coal pollution. By Ethan van Diemen Is rugby winning the war on head injuries after concussions marred the Wallabies-Lions series? The recent series between Australia and the British & Irish Lions was filled with moments — big and small — that shaped the outcome and threw up several talking points. It also brightly put the spotlight on player welfare again after a slew of concussions. By Craig Ray Meet the 31-year-old Sowetan who compiled Joburg's first digital heritage register Johannesburg's first digital heritage register documents 90 sites, many of them unknown to the public. By Anna Cox Spend the night in sassy Soweto to catch the good vibes Day tours of the famous Johannesburg township don't quite capture its versatility and vibrancy. Stay over to experience the storied history and community, excellent food and friendly feel. By Bridget Hilton-Barber Daily Mini Crossword Quickie Play here. Eggs-istential Guilt Be Gone — here's how not to waste them Waste not, want not. Once you've used yolks for mayonnaise, transform leftover egg whites into marvellous macarons. By Anna Trapido Subscribe to First Thing to receive the Weekend Wrap in your inbox every Sunday morning. If you value the work our journalists do and want to support Daily Maverick, consider becoming a Maverick Insider. Support DM
Daily Maverick
2 days ago
- Business
- Daily Maverick
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: How did you get into investigative journalism? Pieter-Louis Myburgh: I studied journalism, and I think around that time already I was quite interested in investigative journalism, specifically. I read All the President's Men [Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward's non-fiction book detailing how they investigated and uncovered the Watergate scandal in the US, ultimately leading to President Richard Nixon's resignation]. It has always been a favourite read of mine, and at that point it was the most well-known example of really consequential, hard-hitting investigative journalism. I've always been inspired by the impact one can achieve through investigative journalism. VO: How did this specific investigation into the Independent Development Trust (IDT) begin? PLM: It started with the oxygen plants scandal. [A forensic investigation revealed that a shadowy company secured more than half of an IDT R836-million hospital oxygen plant tender during Covid-19, and governance failures at the IDT led to the CEO's suspension.] A source contacted me in mid-2024, telling me to have a look at this massive contract. It just grew from there. I got some documents relating to the contract, and also found out that the main contractor wasn't equipped to deliver that equipment and didn't have the necessary Sahpra [South African Health Products Regulatory Authority] accreditation. VO: How did you get the first tip-off? PLM: I can't go into that much detail, but it goes back to my work on Digital Vibes. [The Digital Vibes scandal involved a politically connected communications firm siphoning off millions meant for public health during Covid-19.] So, seeing as Digital Vibes was a Health Department exposé, I do have some sources in that environment. It was somebody from that environment who told me to look at those oxygen plants, because the oxygen plants thing was a collaboration between the Health Department and the IDT. VO: How did you come up with the idea of doing a sting? PLM: It was just the situation that led me to it. I was pursuing an investigation and, as I was contacting people, word of my probing must've got back to [suspended IDT CEO Tebogo Malaka] – or, at least to Phasha Makgolane, the IDT spokesperson – because Makgolane contacted me, out of the blue, in early June this year. I had just come back from doing some work in Gauteng on this issue that I'm investigating, and then he phoned me and said that we should have a meeting, and it was too sensitive to discuss on the phone. You know, all that suspicious language that gave away what the intentions would be. I contacted Daily Maverick editor-in-chief Jillian Green and deputy editor Anso Thom and I said that everything points to bribery being the intention – I don't think this is just a normal interaction between me and the spokesperson. I proposed the idea that we should pursue the meeting first, with Makgolane, and then later with the IDT CEO. Because when Makgolane contacted me, right from the start he said that there were going to be two meetings – one with him and one where Malaka would also be present. VO: So you suspected it? PLM: Oh, definitely. His language gave it away. Just the fact that he was saying that we have mutual matters to discuss. It's kind of code for something nefarious. VO: Were you nervous? PLM: Absolutely – throughout. We invested so much editorially and journalistically in this project – time and logistics, and there were some expenses, obviously. So just on that front, I really wanted it to work out. But then obviously there are also safety concerns on top of that. VO: Tell me about the tech that you used. Did you plan where to sit based on where you could set up a hidden camera? PLM: I suppose the operation is wrapped up, so we can go into some detail. The first prize was always going to be for us to sit at that table, which is why I arrived much earlier. I was already sitting there so that I could beckon for them to come over to me. But we did plan for some eventualities. If they maybe insisted on going to another table, if they didn't like that one, there would've been mobile cameras with some of the operators to follow us and hopefully get it on camera. But that table was going to be our very best chance of getting the best footage and sound. VO: How did Malaka and Makgolane react when you photographed the money? PLM: I think they were a little stunned. Makgolane thought I was using an app on my phone that was counting the money. Well, he jokingly suggested that. I think that when I did that, it probably dawned on them that I was doing something funny. And then, very shortly after that, I told them I was, in fact, not taking the money and gave it back to them. VO: Who paid the bill? PLM: That's a very good question! Obviously, I walked away to get out of there and so did the two of them. So the people on the ground who assisted with the logistics paid the bill. VO: Are you scared for your safety? PLM: Yes, I am – but, I guess, in this line of work it's almost a constant consideration. Whether it's me working on this or other journalists working on the provincial health department in Gauteng or whistle-blower Babita Deokaran's assassination – it's just, I suppose, a constant consideration. For now, I'm kind of lying low. VO: What now, and what consequences would you like to see happen? PLM: We're still focused on getting our actual investigation out [on Monday], which is the issue that prompted the whole bribe attempt. So, ironically, I think this bribe is going to become the main story for now, but actually the investigation involves another IDT contract and the CEO's property in Gauteng. VO: Some people have quipped that R60,000 isn't that much money. Is there a price that you would've accepted? PLM: No. I think we should definitely correct the optics around the amount, because I see that's one angle that's gone very viral. The reality is that R60,000 was meant to have been a little sweetener. At the very first meeting with Makgolane, the main boon for me would have been tenders from the IDT. He said that I could bring contractors to the IDT, they would clinch the contracts, and then I could sort of get my cut. And, very shortly after that first meeting, he sent me a Western Cape IDT tender, inviting me to spread it among my contractor friends. Unfortunately I don't have many of those [laughs].
Daily Maverick
3 days 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
4 days 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.
Daily Maverick
4 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Pieter-Louis Myburgh's exposé of (yet another case of) corruption deserves a monument
Writing a column can be extremely difficult sometimes. At least for me it is. As much as I enjoy the act of writing, the gestation of ideas can take several days. My approach is always to step out of the traffic, get a birds-eye view of things, give them meaning and situate them — always trying to capture the differing light dispersion — and then write about them. Sometimes when you sit down to write about things and you see how they land, you get a sense of the perceptual distortion, of the violence of reality, and how it forces you back to the keyboard. Consider the following analogy. When you view cars travelling on a highway from high above, they appear to be going slowly, but step onto the actual highway, and you literally feel the force of the speeding cars. I gained the same sense from my very limited playing time in ice hockey (I was rubbish at it). It's a beauty to behold a game from the stands high above the arena where you see patterns and flows — you even see plays emerge before they actually do — but step on the ice and it's an entirely different thing. The illusion of stillness is quickly shattered when a two-metre tall guy from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, slams you into the boards — that's when you re-evaluate your life choices. Really. And so I come to my initial intent for this week's contribution, and the 'high-level' idea I was mulling over — race-based policies and what the government has been doing to reverse things like job reservation, or quotas for black people in higher learning. Recruitment drive Seriously, check out this statement from the time when the National Party was on a white-people recruitment drive in the Netherlands during the 1950s. 'Work reservation is essential for the decent type of immigrant who does not want to become mixed up with people of a lower mentality… We have a law in South Africa called 'work reservation' under which our Whites are protected, and I can assure the speaker and the others present that if White ' ambagsmanne ' [tradesmen] come to South Africa, they will be protected.' Then dropped Pieter-Louis Myburgh's videographic expos é of (yet another case of) corruption. So flagrant were the would-be bribe givers that their grotesquery ought to be enshrined in a statue and given a place of prominence in Pretoria to remind future generations of the weaker moments of our young democracy. Wearing my other hat, I have written about and studied the way monuments or statues of 'great men' (Metal Men on Horseback) dotted the European landscape, ostensibly to valorise them, when it really is about power (my inquiry was about war and its impact on social consciousness) and what we believe is important to remember. Consider the declaration, in support of erecting an 'equestrian statue' of England's King George on Manhattan Island: it was 'to perpetuate to the latest Posterity, the deep Sense this Colony has of the eminent and singular Blessings received from him during his most auspicious reign'. The 'reign' of the ANC has become inauspicious. The scene at the table in the video of Pieter-Louis Myburgh, the Independent Development Trust's recently suspended CEO, Tebogo Malaka, and the entity's spokesperson, Phasha Makgolane, reminded me (immediately) of the bronze-work by sculptor Eric de Saint-Chaffrey of a game of Manille between César and Panisse, characters in Marcel Pagnol's Marseille Trilogy. For what it's worth. I have enormous soft spots for Hamal Heykeli, the bronze statue of a traditional porter carrying a heavy load, and of the Monument to Draper or Craftsmen, both in the Fatih District of Istanbul, and for the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman sculpture in Moscow — which makes a change from the monuments and memorials dedicated to warriors and military leaders, which I wrote about in this space previously. The value of such a monument to our weaker moments should serve as a reminder to future generations of just what the state had become after the first 'activist leaders' of Nelson Mandela's administration eventually gave up and left politics. Here's an anecdote. About 29 years and six months ago, a suggestion was made (by a public servant) that a particular state department hold a Christmas party for staff. The head of that department said something like this: 'Imagine that there are one million public servants in South Africa. If we spent R10 per person on a Christmas party, that would be a waste of R10-million of taxpayers' money. We have more important things to do.' What has happened on the ice, or on the highways (in the above analogies) since those days of optimism has been a shock to the system. Explaining it is easier than understanding it. It reminds me that our efforts of rolling back the injustices of the past through (necessary but insufficient) race-based policies have inherent contradictions that we have probably failed to address properly. They have simply resulted in get-rich-quick schemes. At some point (my informed guess is that it was after 2006), a door was opened and there was a repetition of sorts of what happened during the transition from Soviet communism to capitalism in Russia. That transition was marked by 'lawless rapaciousness'. Anatoly Chubais, the architect of privatisation in Russia, said of the new capitalists at that time that 'they steal and steal and steal. They are stealing absolutely everything and it is impossible to stop them.' Greed vs expectations He imagined that things would get better; that they, the new private capitalists and owners of state-owned enterprises, would mature over time — but their greed never quite kept up with expectations. During the Mandela administration and deep into the presidency of Thabo Mbeki, we shared those expectations. Pecuniary gain and get-rich-quick schemes saw a dramatic rise in the wealth of the political elite and cadres of the liberation movement. We are reminded here of what Chubais said about privatisation when the new capitalists stole and stole and stole 'absolutely everything and it is impossible to stop them'. This helps us understand the inherent contradictions in the way that the ANC-in-government failed South Africa from not long after the outset. This was when that most awful of justifications slipped into South African politics: ' I did not fight the Struggle to be poor.' Smuts Ngonyama was right; we did not fight the Struggle to be poor. He was also wrong; we did not fight to get rich, but to improve the wellbeing, prosperity and safety of children and adults, the protection of women, and to generate high levels of trust among individuals and groups in South Africa. Though I am nowhere close to (even the periphery of) the ruling party, spare a thought for those first-generation political leaders from the Mandela and Mbeki administrations. Imagine, just for a minute, being president now, and waking up every day to a new scandal that is so far from your daily reach that being president is a bit like standing in the middle of a highway with cars flashing by, and you don't know where to look or what to think, and you remain in a constant state of panic, fear, confusion — and shock.
