Former public works minister Sihle Zikalala lowballed the findings of an investigation he had commissioned, paving the way for Tebogo Malaka’s appointment as chief executive of the Independent Development Trust (IDT) despite her involvement in a R45-million lease scandal.
Evidence suggests that interventions by former public works minister Sihle Zikalala and his close comrade, then-IDT chair Kwazi Mshengu, stifled National Treasury investigations into allegations against then acting-CEO Tebogo Malaka and substituted a superficial probe by Zikalala’s department.
Nine days before the 2024 national elections, Zikalala endorsed Malaka’s elevation from acting to permanent CEO on the basis that his probe “found no wrongdoing” against her, but the probe had not been mandated to investigate Malaka.
Last month the IDT was slapped down in its attempt to review the contract that Malaka was accused of mishandling after Malaka herself had deposed the founding affidavit.
Part One of this series showed how Kwazi Mshengu, Zikalala’s confidant and then-IDT chair, led the board in abandoning a National Treasury investigation into the parastatal’s procurement of a new head office lease — even refusing to be briefed on its provisional findings.
