Two companies with links to Deputy President Paul Mashatile’s sons were paid R36.4m – and are owed a further R12.6m – for a Gauteng Government contract servicing fire alarms and sprinkler systems at public hospitals, reports News24.
In June 2022, the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development, acting as an implementing agent for the Department of Health, awarded a panel contract to Ngwato and Manzi Group (NMG) and Modipadi Nokaneng for the work. The contracts are due to lapse in November 2025.
An investigation by News24 found that half-brothers Thabiso Mashatile and Tinyiko Mvelase played critical roles at NMG, which has shown close links to Modipadi Nokaneng, including the sharing of staff and office space, at a time when they were, ostensibly, competitors.
Thabiso is Mashatile’s eldest son with his late wife Manzi Mashatile, who died in 2020. Mvelase’s mother is Dipuo Mvelase, a former uMkhonto weSizwe operative and ANC figure still active in politics.
Both were directors of the company and later, having resigned in an apparent attempt to avoid scrutiny, occupied management positions, including project manager and head of operations.
NMG was also placed on a panel to supply autoclave machines and for the delivery of general building materials. The department said none of the payments made to NMG was for those contracts.
Non-compliant
In March this year, it emerged that not one of Gauteng’s 37 public hospitals was compliant with occupational health and safety (OHS) legislation, with fire cited as the biggest risk, according to a statement by DA provincial spokesperson for Health Jack Bloom.
“Sixteen hospitals scored less than 75% OHS compliance, mostly because of missing fire prevention and fire suppression equipment and lack of fire signage and escape lighting,” Bloom said.
In the past five years, dozens of fires have caused hundreds of millions of rands of damage at Gauteng hospitals, including at Charlotte Maxeke and Tembisa.
Tardy paying out
The latest investigation by News24 was sparked by NMG’s failure to pay settlements to about 12 employees it retrenched in September 2024. The workers have yet to be paid settlements amounting to R219 000, despite numerous undertakings.
The amounts range from R10 000 to R30 000, according to documents submitted to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) in October 2024.
NMG has been paid R15.8m and is owed a further R2.9m in respect of the Health Department fire tender.
In a letter to one of the workers signed by Mvelase, Mashatile’s son, he confirms the reasons for the layoffs are related to the company’s finances, without expounding.
Netwerk24 reported that some of the money was for the rental of a fax machine at a Pretoria forensic mortuary, renovations at an unknown location, and repairs to water systems at South Rand Hospital. None of these has anything to do with fire detection and suppression systems.
Modipadi Nokaneng, meanwhile, was paid R20.5m and is owed a further R9.6m.
Intricate web
The entire R49m is, however, linked to a network of friends and business partners the Mashatile sons built for this tender alongside mysterious businessman Taletjo Nala Mahlakoana, and two sisters – Lefentse and Thato Nokaneng.
Details of the management of the two companies were difficult to pin down, due to multiple resignations and appointments of directors within the two companies, complicated by connections between the group surrounding the Mashatile children and this one tender.
When questioned about the workers still being owed money, Mashatile, for example, said because he had resigned as a director, he could not be expected to know the answers – yet he remained involved with the management of NMG after his resignation as a director.
But in interviews with one former worker, details of the close relationship between the companies started to emerge.
The company now named Ngwato and Manzi Group was first registered in 2016 and named Taletjo Mahlakoana Civils. In April 2021, Mashatile became a director alongside Mahlakoana and, within a few days, the company name was changed.
They both resigned on the same day in 2022, and two other directors were appointed, Mashatile’s other son, Mvelase, and a woman named Thato Nokaneng.
Mashatile and Mahlakoana were therefore directors of NMG when its tender was submitted. By the time the department announced them as winning bidders alongside Modipadi Nokaneng, they had resigned.
Mahlakoana was also the sole director of Modipadi Nokaneng, but resigned on 9 November 2021, before the tender submission period closed.
He was replaced by Lefentse Nokaneng – after whom the company is named – and whose sister, Thato, would later become a director of NMG. It was at least the fourth time since 2019 they had swopped directorship in this way, and Lefentse told Netwerk24 that she was not involved in the day-to-day running of the company.
Both Thato and Mvelase would also later resign as directors of NMG, to be replaced by Mzwandile Hleli, who had gone to school with Mvelase.
Despite their attempts to distance themselves from NMG, a News24 investigation shows the involvement of Mashatile, Mvelase and Mahlakoana in the company did not end with their resignations as directors.
“Whenever there were any serious discussions, the staff always spoke with Thabiso (Mashatile) or Tinyiko (Mvelase),” one worker said.
Mashatile has also previously confirmed he was a project director at NMG.
‘We were never separated’
NMG was one of two companies put on the panel of service providers in June 2022. The other company, Modipadi Nokaneng, appears at first glance to be a separate entity.
However, News24 has found the two companies were inextricably interlinked and at various stages shared staff, resources and offices.
NMG and Modipadi Nokaneng submitted separate tenders, were awarded separate contracts and were, on paper, separate companies.
But the worker interviewed by News24 said they would have to double-check for which entity they were preparing documents, and technicians were told to remember for which entity they were working before site visits.
“We were never separated,” the worker said.
The Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development said it was unaware of any links between the two companies.
Retrenchments
The workers approached the CCMA after an agreement in September that NMG would pay the settlements in three instalments – starting at the end of September – went unhonoured.
Buti Sekgoto, a representative of the African People’s Trade Union, confirmed he was still assisting the workers to pursue their claims.
Thabiso Mashatile refused to be drawn on questions about the status of the company’s contracts with provincial government departments or the failure to pay the workers or the reasons for the retrenchments.
Instead, through an attorney for Mashatile and Mahlakoana – the current director of Modipadi Nokaneng – they threatened to file a court application on vague grounds including that they would seek a costs order against News24.
Attorney Lesedi Mphahlele accused News24 of “being part of a concerted campaign to smear and damage” Mashatile and Mahlakoana’s reputations.
Despite a refusal to respond to questions about the circumstances surrounding the retrenchments, a letter to an employee, signed by Mvelase – Mashatile’s son – in his capacity as head of operations in September 2024, said the reasons were financial.
News24’s investigation shows that in October 2023, a little more than a year into the panel contract, the department issued a further tender to place additional service providers on the panel for fire detection and suppression system maintenance.
Two new service providers were added to the panel, but the contracts with NMG and Modipadi Nokaneng remained active.
The department said the intention was to supplement the existing panel to “prevent overburdening the current service providers” amid an increase in “scope and magnitude” of work required.
The department denied poor performance by NMG or Modipadi Nokaneng played a role.
But the flow of cash slowed. Before the new panel members were added, NMG earned, on average, R24 600 a day, which dropped to R7 400 daily, excluding money owed, after the new panel was constituted.
Modipadi Nokaneng’s daily average dropped from R34 000 to R29 200, also excluding money owed.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Arson suspicion in second Charlotte Maxeke fire reignites concerns about its future
No fire clearance certificates, floor plans, at Gauteng hospitals
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Eight steps to get SA’s health sector right