Should colleague Pieter-Louis Myburgh stroll past you, say at an airport, you would notice a young, solid man with a purposeful walk. Myburgh is not tall, but he is also not short.
If you lived in the real world, you might clock his demeanour as a person who knows what he is doing. Some might even look at him and think: “I wonder if he is a cop?”
Don’t laugh. A while back, South African rock star Karen Zoid performed in the Karoo gem, Prince Albert. Afterwards, in the Irish Bush Pub, four men sat alone nursing beers at a table to one side. Their shoes, their shirts, their moustaches (Myburgh does not have a moustache) screamed “the law”, at least to this South African who grew up in the Seventies and Eighties.
I leaned in and whispered to my born-free daughter: “They’re cops.”
“You’re just paranoid,” she replied.
Turns out the four big guys were indeed cops, but retired ones.
I should have placed a hefty bet on the table. Maybe R60,000 cash – but only randelas, please, and not those old notes with the Big Five on them, which are about to expire and can only be exchanged at the Reserve Bank.
Reading for life, not for fun
Anyone intending to offer a hefty bribe would research their intended target, you would think. A simple Google search would inform you of Myburgh’s credentials, his awards, his work over the years.
His two books, Gangster State (2019), which exposed the depth of alleged corruption involving former Free State premier and later ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, and the 2017 bestseller, The Republic of Gupta, should have given you enough of a sniff in the old schnoz.
You would know that Myburgh’s motto is “follow the money”. In fact, he loves the old saying so much that it might even be on his family crest or embroidered and framed in his kitchen.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/P29-ThammRID.jpg "From left: Tebogo Malaka, Collen Mashawana, Ace Magashule and Zweli Mkhize. (Photos: Supplied, Mlungisi Louw / Gallo Images, Darren Stewart / Gallo Images)")
However, it is a motto that seems to have been grossly misunderstood by Independent Development Trust (IDT) spokesperson Phasha Makgolane when he contacted Myburgh in June. Months prior to this, Myburgh had been investigating suspended IDT chief executive Tebogo Malaka, who received at least two payments towards the construction of her upmarket private property from prominent Gauteng businessperson Collen Mashawana.
Read more: Investigation – IDT contractor ripped off workers, bankrolled Tebogo Malaka’s new R16m property
In turn, Mashawana’s nonprofit foundation had secured an estimated R60-million contract from the IDT to run employment schemes that may have left hundreds of poor, unemployed South Africans high and dry. The stories are on Daily Maverick’s website.
Giving off vibes
Myburgh also added another highly notable notch to South Africa’s corruption-busting stick when he outed the Digital Vibes scandal. This led to the firing of charismatic Zweli Mkhize, senior ANC leader, deputy president hopeful and former minister of health.
The investigation related to a dodgy R150-million communications tender was first sparked by digging deep into government spending on Covid-19 communications – about R82-million at the time. And Myburgh digs deep, people. The company’s director was listed as Radha Hariram, a front for Tahera Mather, a figure familiar to political journalists as Mkhize’s long-time aide.
As Myburgh said at the time, “following the money” – with the aid of financial documents provided by sources – revealed that the bulk of the money paid to Digital Vibes for Covid-19 communications was diverted to the pockets of Mather and her family and Mkhize’s. Remember the hair salon and nail bars set up for his son Dedani and daughter-in-law Sthoko? Myburgh’s investigative reports were vindicated later by a Special Investigating Unit probe, which mirrored his findings.
It would be safe to assume that on the day Makgolane decided to contact Myburgh to discuss matters, he had not done his research. Not only that, he probably had not read a newspaper in years.
It would also suggest that Malaka has been too preoccupied building her house and dealing with allegations of corruption to look up and smell the sting.
This one reeked from six blocks away and is one of the finest examples underscoring the truth of writer Anaïs Nin’s famous quote: “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” DM
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.
