Public Works' Macpherson expected to lay criminal complaint against suspended IDT CEO

CAPE TOWN - Public Works Minister Dean Macpherson is on Thursday expected to lay a criminal complaint against the suspended chief executive officer of the Independent Development Trust (IDT), Tebogo Malaka.

Just a week since Macpherson released the findings of a forensic investigation into the trust, online publication the Daily Maverick, on Wednesday published a video showing Malaka trying to offer a journalist a bribe to stop him from investigating her.

Macpherson said that he would address these shocking revelations outside the Cape Town Central Police Station at noon.

The minister has come under fire since the start of this administration for his handling of alleged corruption at the IDT, a lesser-known state-owned entity responsible for managing the construction, renovation and maintenance of facilities like schools and clinics.

Macpherson was taken to court and won after he made changes to the board and ordered a forensic investigation into an oxygen supply tender for hospitals after the Daily Maverick blew the lid on dodgy contracts worth R800 million. 

Now the same journalist, Pieter-Louis Myburgh, has dropped another bombshell - a secretly-recorded video of IDT CEO Tebogo Malaka and spokesperson, Phasha Makgolane, offering him R60,000 in cash to squash his reporting.

Macpherson said this incident leads him to believe that he’s been part of a paid-for public campaign to discredit his efforts to bring stability and good governance to the entity.

The forensic report recommended disciplinary action against Malaka for irregularities in the oxygen supply tender.