Caught on hidden cameras, IDT’s CEO allegedly tries to bribe a journalist. Now, the truth takes centre stage.
There is a selfish tendency among journalists not to acknowledge the good work done by their colleagues in other media organisations.
We cannot, however, do that when it comes to the brave reporting by Pieter-Louis Myburgh and the Daily Maverick – after they allegedly caught a government official red-handed trying to bribe him.
The sting he carried out on suspended Independent Development Trust (IDT) CEO Tebogo Malaka was carefully constructed and in the best traditions of investigative journalism.
With hidden video cameras, the Daily Maverick team filmed Malaka and IDT spokesperson Phasha Makgolane trying to persuade Myburgh to drop an investigation into her new, plush R12 million house in the luxury Waterfall Country Estate… and pushing over an envelope stuffed with R60 000 as the first instalment of what they clearly hoped would be a fruitful relationship.
Malaka allegedly said: “I just want to close this chapter. It’s too much. I have kids, I have parents, my parents are old, they were sick, they couldn’t sleep over the last weekend. It’s bad. I don’t want you to be writing about it. I don’t want anything, even more coming out. Let’s have peace for a moment.”
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Once he had got the evidence on camera and photographed the money, Myburgh left the meeting.
Now, faced with this evidence, Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson plans to meet the IDT board.
We now eagerly await the back-pedalling of those who claimed that Myburgh and the Daily Maverick were on a witch-hunt to deliberately bring down a successful black woman.
There were also those like ActionSA who went further and demanded that President Cyril Ramaphosa fire Macpherson, while the EFF claimed it had opened a criminal case against the minister for allegedly corruptly trying to interfere with investigations into the IDT.
Herman Mashaba and Julius Malema – what say you now?
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