One year after IDT boss âbribeâ sting, no arrests or prosecutions

This story has significance for readers across Africa and beyond.

A year has gone by with no arrests or prosecutions following a Daily Maverick video âstingâ showing former Independent Development Trust (IDT) CEO Tebogo Malaka and ex-IDT spokesperson Phasha Makgolane offering this journalist a bag of cash containing R60,000.

The alleged cash bribe offer, together with earlier promises of lucrative IDT contracts, were made in relation to a Daily Maverick investigation into Malakaâs financial dealings with Gauteng businessperson Collen Mashawana.

The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), or the Hawks, and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) are pursuing two separate investigations.

A DPCI team from Cape Town is investigating the alleged bribe offer, since the recorded meeting took place at a wine farm near Stellenbosch.

The other probe is assigned to investigators from Gauteng and deals with Mashawanaâs involvement in a new house Malaka was building inside Gautengâs upmarket Waterfall Country Estate.

Daily Maverick has learnt that there is considerable frustration among some stakeholders involved in the probes, specifically in regard to the investigation into the alleged bribe attempt.

âThis is a prosecutor-guided investigation, but it is on the NPAâs side where things are stalling. We could have locked up the suspects two or three months ago, but the NPA doesnât seem to want to act on the evidence already at their disposal,â claimed one source who spoke to us on condition of anonymity.

NPA spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago, however, denied that the prosecution body is dragging its feet.

âIt is not possible. We only get involved when the Hawks have finished their investigation. Our job is to consider the evidence and then decide if we should prosecute or not.â

Kganyago said there was a team from the NPA working with the Hawks and that the matter was in a âvolatile stateâ. Kganyago didnât want to commit to a possible timeline for wrapping up the probe.

The Hawks indicated that it had made significant progress on the probe into the alleged bribery.

âThe matter is currently in an advanced stage of investigation between our investigator and the Special Commercial Crimes Unitâs appointed advocate,â said Lieutenant-Colonel Riaan Morris, section commander for the Hawksâ Commercial Crimes Investigations unit.

Morris said the Hawks will communicate further progress with the case on 18 September.

The Waterfall property

It is not clear how much progress the DPCI has made on its probe into Malakaâs dealing with Mashawana and the suspicious cashflows linked to her Waterfall property.

âPlease note that the investigation is still ongoing and is being investigated,â said Hawks spokesperson Colonel Katlego Mogale.

Daily Maverickâs investigations detailed how companies linked to Mashawana paid contractors for work on Malakaâs Waterfall property.

At the time, Mashawanaâs charitable foundation was banking millions of rands from the IDT for rolling out an Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).

EPWP workers across several provinces contracted to the Collen Mashawana Foundation were not receiving their monthly salaries, raising suspicions that the IDT funds were being diverted to Malakaâs property. DM

Reporting originally appeared via Daily Maverick. Read the full source for additional context.