The beleaguered Independent Development Trust (IDT) paid a company directed by an apparent family member of CEO Tebogo Malaka over R33 million – mainly for school building projects – between 2011 and 2017.
Malaka was a regional general manager at the time and according to what amaBhungane can determine, would have overseen the company’s appointment.
AmaBhungane obtained a list of 85 payments from the IDT to D Molefi Logistics, a company directed by Lesego Dorcas Molefi.
Molefi is married to Lebogang Robert Molekwa and according to trust information, Molekwa and Malaka are both trustees of the Magogodi Family Trust.
AmaBhungane has established that Malaka’s maiden name was Molekwa, while sources who spoke to amaBhungane said that Molefi is Malaka’s sister-in-law, married to Malaka’s brother.
Neither Malaka, Molefi nor Molekwa responded to texts, calls or requests for comment.
Following amaBhungane’s questions to the IDT on Friday, 4 April, a social media campaign was launched against the publication and its co-founder, Sam Sole, hurling accusations of an “orchestrated character assassination”.
However, the IDT, like the individuals involved, did not respond to amaBhungane’s questions about Malaka’s potential conflict of interest concerning D Molefi Logistics.
Large entity
The IDT is a Schedule 2 public entity in terms of the Public Finance Management Act (like Eskom, Transnet and Denel).
It manages infrastructure projects on behalf of government departments when they want, for whatever reason, to outsource this role.
For a fee paid by the client department, the IDT handles the procurement, implementation and handover of projects such as social infrastructure, which includes building and maintaining roads, schools, hospitals and police stations.
Instead of government departments paying contractors directly, they pay this money through IDT. The IDT, therefore, handles billions in government money, and it seems that a chunk of this money found its way to a company linked to Malaka’s family.
Family connection
D Molefi Logistics scored at least seven contracts with the IDT while Malaka was regional general manager in Gauteng. Here she also oversaw the North West and Northern Cape regions – precisely the two provinces in which D Molefi Logistics scored contracts in the same timeframe.
This means that Malaka would have overseen the awarding of the contracts which, according to our information, totalled R33 407 134.
As far as amaBhungane could establish, contracts of less than R10-million would have been handled at a regional level, where Malaka was in charge. All contracts apart from one were below that threshold.
Malaka – whose full name is Magogodi Elizabeth Tebogo Malaka – and Molefi’s husband Lebogang Molekwa, are co-trustees in the Magogodi Family Trust.
All indications, including Malaka’s maiden surname, suggest that Malaka and Molekwa are siblings, but neither party would confirm this.
Following the first award, the IDT paid D Molefi at least 85 times. According to our records, while each payment lists a project code (the contract the company was paid for), it does not specify the nature of these projects.
However, payments do specify which province and department the project would fall under. Most of the projects fell under the North West region and were handled by the IDT on behalf of the Department of Education.
Sources who spoke to amaBhungane on condition of anonymity said that some projects related to the replacement of mud schools with brick structures. However, the IDT would not confirm whether D Molefi Logistics had completed these projects.
D Molefi Logistics has no website, and its registered office is the same as Molefi’s residential address.
The only online presence D Molefi Logistics has is its bids for other contracts in the North West and Northern Cape, including with the Independent Election Commission (IEC), the North West Department of Education and the Northern Cape Department of Public Works and Roads.
In 2010, the company was in final deregistration due to non-compliance in filing its annual returns but was reinstated later that year. Between 2014 and 2016 – when the company scored multiple contracts with the IDT – it found itself in the process of deregistration twice.
Beleaguered
Malaka was appointed to chair the IDT board in August 2021, paving the way for her appointment as acting CEO in October of that year.
At the time, the Auditor General told the IDT that Malaka’s appointment contravened the PFMA and the IDT’s human resources policy as there was “no formal written appointment letter and employment contractual agreement signed and agreed to for the appointment”.
Her appointment as CEO was only formalised in June 2024 according to her LinkedIn profile.
The IDT has been dogged by controversy since early 2024, when, according to a News24 report, National Treasury initiated an investigation over allegations of “corruption, financial management and maladministration” concerning the IDT’s head office lease.
It is not clear what the outcome of that investigation was.
Then, in July 2024, News24 reported that the Hawks were investigating the director general of the National Department of Health, Dr Sandile Buthelezi, concerning allegations that he had solicited a R500 000 payment from a contractor, Base Major.
The IDT awarded the company a multi-million-rand contract to refurbish Tambo Memorial Hospital in Gauteng through a highly questionable process on behalf of the health department, amaBhungane reported.
At the end of July, the Special Tribunal set aside contracts worth R1.6-billion that the IDT awarded to five companies to implement projects for the Department of Correctional Services between 2011 and 2012. In one case, The Tribunal found that the award was ‘predetermined’.
In late 2024, amaBhungane and Daily Maverick exposed irregularities in an R800-million oxygen plant tender, which also raised questions about Malaka’s role. As a result, Minister of Public Works Dean Macpherson initiated an investigation into the allegations.
Macpherson has kept up the pressure on the IDT, appointing audit firm PWC to investigate the oxygen contract and announcing that he would be recommending lifestyle audits on all senior staff at the IDT.
Targeted campaign
A day after amaBhungane sent questions to the IDT concerning Malaka’s family connections, a targeted social media campaign ignited on X (formerly Twitter) against amaBhungane.
What seem to be paid influencers and bots churned out a flurry of posts about the publication “serving the interests” of faceless and nameless individuals while “spreading propaganda” as well as conducting a “smear campaign”.
Many of the accounts that posted had also previously posted in support of the IDT following Macpherson’s shake-up of the board and revelations of the dodgy R800-million oxygen contract.
On Wednesday, an unidentified person using the pseudonym “Agora Echo” contacted amaBhungane warning of the imminent publication of an “open letter” regarding the “disturbing findings involving your journalist, Ms Azarrah Karrim”.
Agora Echo exists only on X and joined the platform in January this year. It has been spreading a fake AI video purporting to be the Minister of Public Works Dean Macpherson calling certain politicians “monkeys”, as well as documents purporting to be a plan to target the IDT.
It has a group of bot and paid accounts boosting engagement.
In a personal message from an unregistered burner number, the same entity purported to have obtained “legal clearance from the Johannesburg court” to “access your financial records, communication logs and call data”. This allegedly included “contact with the IDT and its executives”.
AmaBhungane asked for a copy of the alleged court order, to which the unidentified person replied, “there is no need to disclose that to you am [sic] told by the team”.
They added that “it was just a message to show you what you can expect for investigations that almost made our clients commit suicide”. They did not say who the “client” of the anonymous X account may be.
