Limpopo municipal boss asks Hawks to probe fake Ribn graft claims

Maluleka says he is the victim of a smear campaign

- By Tshwarelo eseng Mogakane

The municipal manager of Mogalakwena Local Municipality in Limpopo's Mokopane town has called on the Hawks to investigate a former employee he accuses of spreading fake social media posts linking him and Premier Phophi Ramathuba to a R1-billion corruption scandal.

Montego Morris Maluleka, who has led Mogalakwena since 2021, filed a sworn affidavit with the provincial Hawks office this week while on leave in Johannesburg. The 10-page document dissects anonymous accounts, bogus confessions and recycled allegations that recently resurfaced, purporting to show him admitting to corruption on the instructions of Ramathuba and Cooperative Governance MEC Basikopo Makamu.

One page, titled “Mogalakwena Corruption”, and another impersonating Maluleka directly, claim that he was preparing to surrender to the Hawks and had been assured that his jail term would not exceed a week. The posts further alleged that Mogalakwena had blown more than R1-billion in a single year.