Public office is about service, not self-service

Malaka case highlights all that's wrong with leadership in SA

- Pikolomzi Qaba

When Independent Development Trust (IDT) CEO Tebogo Malaka slid R60000 across a Stellenbosch wine farm table to silence a journalist, she was demonstrating everything wrong with South Africa’s leadership culture.

The video footage, made public by the Daily Maverick, shows Malaka and spokesperson Phasha Makgolane offering cash to Pieter-Louis Myburgh to bury an ongoing investigation into her property dealings and IDT contracts worth R836-million.

The Malaka Family Trust’s defence of the CEO, however, appears to be a textbook case of blame-shifting, and an effort to avoid accountability.

By framing the incident as a politically motivated “trap,” the trust attempts to deflect from the core issue: the documented offer of a bribe. This narrative avoids confronting the damning video evidence and instead focuses on questioning the ethics of the journalist and the motives of the cabinet minister responsible for the IDT.