You watched with the rest of South Africa how IDT CEO Tebogo Malaka and the entity’s spokesperson tried to bribe him to bury his investigation into her dodgy property dealings. Now you get to ask him everything you’ve been dying to know about how it all went down.
On Friday, go behind the scenes with Pieter-Louis as he answers all your burning questions, live on DMC.
Date: Friday, 15 August 2025 Time: 12:00–13:00 SAST Where: Daily Maverick Connect Leave your questions in the replies now or on Friday
The deliberations and actions of Malaka and Makgolane seem so unbelievably crass- imagining you were so easily bribable and even down to the money being “concealed’” in a Dior bag of all things. Are you sure this is not some kind of double bind plot to lead DM on and then take you through the courts with an expensive defamation case that you can defend but at great expense?
Why not walk away with the money and use it, responsibly. What could they possibly have done? Claimed that you didn’t keep to your end of the bribery bargain?
Like when voters in Kenya were offered incentives to vote a certain way, the counter strategy was not to discourage taking the bribe but to point out that no one knows how you vote. So take the bribe and do what you were going to do anyway…
Good afternoon, everyone! It’s been one heck of a ride since we published our video last week Wednesday! I’m looking forward to this afternoon’s session
I guess investigative journalists generally worry about their safety more or less all the time. It is unfortunately one of the unavoidable elements to doing this job. And yes, I’ve had some specific threats made to me. We handle those on a case-by-case basis, bringing in external security experts when needed.
Haha, that’s a good question. That day was the culmination of weeks and weeks of careful planning to make sure we were in the best possible position to document the handover, if that was indeed what the IDT CEO intended to do. (Of course, we had good reason to suspect she would do this.) Our surveillance experts actually chose that specific table as the best option and prepared accordingly, which included the little eye in the tree
I was quite surprised that the IDT CEO, or at her family trust, released a statement in which she denied her role in the attempted bribe… She effectively threw poor Phasha Makgolane, the spokesperson, under the bus. Didn’t see that one coming, to be honest. Of course, her rebuttal looks very weak - in one of the clips one can clearly hear her say they had brought “sixty” to the meeting.
I think she was genuinely that desperate to quash my investigation into her Waterfall property. So no, I don’t think this was some deliberate scheme to draw us into litigation.
There is a police investigation into the bribery issue, based on the complaint DPWI minister Dean MacPherson laid in Cape Town shortly after the video was published. There are also Hawks investigations into other IDT matters, including the R836m oxygen plants scandal Daily Maverick exposed last year. Most importantly - I really hope the Hawks or perhaps the SIU probe this issue in the unpaid EPWP salaries, and businessman Collens Mashawana’s concurrent role in building a new house for Malaka in the Waterfall estate.
The investigation into Malaka’s property and the EPWP scheme involving Collen Mashawana took 8 months. I started looking into that in December 2024. We started planning for the video “sting” element of the story in early June, just after I had my initial meeting with the IDT spokesperson.
I know this is kinda super minor but I have been wondering since I saw the video, did anyone pay for the drinks or did everyone walk away once it was revealed you were not taking the money?
Date: Friday, 15 August 2025
Time: 12:00–13:00 SAST
Where: Daily Maverick Connect
Leave your questions in the replies now or on Friday
