Inside Collen Mashawana’s ‘political connections’

Collen Mashawana, the Gauteng businessman at the centre of a scandal involving the Independent Development Trust (IDT), appears to have ready access to a range of top politicians and government leaders.

Mashawana’s social media pages are awash with images of himself posing with such political luminaries as President Cyril Ramaphosa, EFF leader Julius Malema and former social development minister Lindiwe Zulu.

When the businessman’s namesake charitable foundation held a gala dinner for its 12th anniversary in Sandton last year, Malema and Zulu were among those who sang Mashawana’s praises from the podium. If Zulu’s speech was anything to go by, Mashawana had somehow managed to bring together an impressive ensemble of political elites.

“To the ministers and deputy ministers who are here, to the MECs, to the mayors, to those representing the premier of the province…” Zulu acknowledged the dignitaries in the audience.

The event took place just before the Independent Development Trust (IDT) appointed the Collen Mashawana Foundation (CMF) to a R60-million contract to manage an Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) scheme for nearly 2,000 jobless South Africans across five provinces.

Read more: IDT vows to probe Collen Mashawana Foundation’s ‘signatures fraud’

It is this scheme that is now at the centre of Daily Maverick’s IDT investigations. Our reports revealed that Mashawana allegedly funnelled money to a new house being built for suspended IDT CEO Tebogo Malaka.

Mashawana’s charitable foundation, meanwhile, failed to pay the EPWP workers their rightful salaries and allegedly forged their signatures to secure payments from the IDT. All indications are that Malaka had hoped to bury her ties to Mashawana by offering this journalist an alleged bribe, an act we documented in our viral video “sting” exposé.

Read more: Collen Mashawana Foundation exits IDT jobs programme after Daily Maverick’s ‘fraudulent signatures’ exposé

Our focus now shifts to the political world Mashawana seems to inhabit. Considering the cloud of alleged corruption that now hangs over the businessman, it is apt to ask if his apparent political ties carry the seeds of alleged influence peddling or even State Capture.

Zulu strongly denied any impropriety in her dealings with Mashawana.

She said she knew the businessman from before her time as minister of social development.

"He is a popular man in Limpopo. I know him through people who know him," explained Zulu.

When she became social development minister, Zulu's department partnered with the Collen Mashawana Foundation (CMF) in projects aimed at delivering houses to indigent households.

The CMF built the houses, while Zulu's department provided other forms of support to the recipients.

"There were no tenders of any sort awarded to the foundation. For as long as I was minister, there was no money going from my department to Mashawana's foundation," said Zulu.

Efforts to obtain Malema's comment through his party's spokesperson were unsuccessful.

‘No relationship’ – Ramaphosa

The most famous face to be found on Mashawana’s social media pages belongs to President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Our searches showed that the President had been photographed with Mashawana on no fewer than five different occasions. The businessman’s older brother, Cecil, also appeared in most of these photographs.

The pictures could easily lend themselves to the idea that there exists some personal connection between the two. There is also the fact that Ramaphosa and Mashawana both have longstanding ties to Limpopo’s former Venda homeland.

But the President’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, says there is no such relationship.

“He [Ramaphosa] has been emphatic that he has no relationship with the guy,” said Magwenya.

The spokesperson said he immediately recognised Mashawana when Daily Maverick sent him the photographs.

“He is one of those usual suspect types, always present at government events. I don’t know how het gets access, but he does.”

According to Magwenya, the President regularly poses for pictures with people he doesn’t know, which brings about possible reputational risks.

“We have seen people that are at almost every event the President attends. They are always asking for pictures or manage to get themselves in perfect picture moments. The President knows this risk very well about the thousands of strangers that ask for pictures with him,” he said.

“Sometimes people take pictures to pretend that they’re connected to the President.”

Read more: Collen Mashawana Foundation exits IDT jobs programme after Daily Maverick’s ‘fraudulent signatures’ exposé

One of the photographs, however, was not taken at a government function but at a lodge in Thohoyandou, Limpopo. The lodge’s owner is none other than Mashawana.

Magwenya explained that the President happened to stay at the lodge when he attended his cousin’s funeral.

“The President remains adamant that he has no relationship with the guy. He has seen him at a number of events and even stayed at his lodge or hotel in Venda [Thohoyandou] but none of it qualifies as a relationship,” he said.

Daily Maverick also sought clarity on a photograph Collen and Cecil Mashawana took with the President at a trade expo in Dubai in 2022.

According to official statements from the Presidency at the time, Ramaphosa led a delegation that included then agriculture minister Thoko Didiza and then public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan.

But just how did the Mashawanas make it into the delegation?

“The DTIC [Department of Trade, Industry and Competition] compiles the list of businesspeople that form part of these delegations,” said Magwenya.

“They send invitations through organised formations, like BUSA [Business Unity South Africa] and/or BBC [Black Business Council], who will then alert their members to the invitation.”

Mashawana and the Gauteng set

After Daily Maverick first reported on Mashawana and his dealings with Malaka, we were contacted by sources who claimed that the businessman was particularly well connected to officials and politicians in Gauteng.

Companies in Mashawana’s Afribiz group have over the years partnered up with the provincial government on massive infrastructure projects, especially in the low-cost housing and urban development space. Any familiarity between Mashawana and provincial officials would therefore raise concerns about possible undue influence and even alleged corruption or State Capture.

One provincial official Mashawana was alleged to be close to was Lebogang Maile, Gauteng’s MEC for finance and economic development. Before his move to the finance portfolio in July 2024, Maile was the province’s MEC for human settlements and infrastructure development.

Our sources claimed that Mashawana had been in regular contact with Maile and that he maintained close ties to officials in Maile’s office.

We asked Maile if any of this was true. The MEC said the “accusations and allegations are just baseless” and that our sources had “greatly” misled us.

“I don’t know what informs the propaganda of your source, because I am not a friend to Mr Collen Mashawana,” Maile added.

But we dug up some information that suggested Mashawana indeed fostered close ties to staffers in Maile’s office.

Enter one Karabo Mohapi, a former official in Maile’s office. In January this year, Maile posted a message on X about his department’s efforts to boost entrepreneurship in the province. Maile urged entrepreneurs in need of assistance to contact Mohapi or another official in his office. What’s more, Mohapi’s email address still appears on Maile’s gov.za contact page.

Just a month before the post on X, Mohapi took up a directorship in an entity called Luxe Grooming. Before this, Collen Mashawana was this entity’s sole director. In other words, it appears as if Mohapi took the reins of a Mashawana entity while she was still working in Maile’s office.

In April 2025, Mohapi took up the sole directorship in Luande Mukwethwa Properties, another entity linked to Mashawana. Daily Maverick previously detailed how Mashawana, in 2024, channelled monies to Malaka’s Waterfall property using this very entity.

We asked Maile for clarity on Mohapi’s role in his office and her dual business activities with Mashawana.

“I really don’t know much about her personal life but I think they are married,” Maile stated. He ignored further requests for information.

We reached Mohapi on her cellphone and asked her about her involvement with Mashawana and her work in Maile’s office. She requested that we send her written questions and gave us her email address, but she did not respond to the questions.

Collen Mashawana did not respond to questions about his alleged political connections. DM

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