Madlanga Commission: WhatsApp Bombshell in Ekurhuleni Tender Scandal

Folks, listen. We have been telling you for months that the rot in South Africa doesn’t stop at a politician’s door. It runs through boardrooms, through municipal corridors, and straight into the phones of the powerful. Today, the Madlanga Commission pulled back the curtain on a web so tangled it involves a dead taxi king, a controversial businessman, a former city manager, and a tender that stinks to high heaven. And that’s just the appetizer. The main course? A R3.5 million private jet to London that was never declared. Buckle up.

Madlanga Commission: WhatsApp bombshell in Ekurhuleni tender scandal

Johannesburg, South Africa — The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System heard explosive evidence on Monday that links a late taxi boss, a controversial businessman, and a former Ekurhuleni city manager in a municipal tender scandal. And folks, this isn’t just about paperwork. This is about a company that got a bid, a city manager who said “thanks baba,” and a luxury trip to London that someone else paid for. Let’s break it down.

The WhatsApp Trail

There was no witness in the witness box on Monday. No dramatic testimony. Instead, evidence leader Advocate Matthew Chaskalson SC did the talking, and he brought receipts. The commission was shown WhatsApp exchanges extracted from the phone of the late taxi boss Jothan “King Mswabi” Msibi. And those messages, folks, are a smoking gun wrapped in a text bubble.

According to Chaskalson, the messages were used to examine Msibi’s dealings with businessman Ze Nxumalo and former Ekurhuleni city manager Dr Imogen Mashazi. The subject? A tender for a project management unit. One message showed Nxumalo forwarding Msibi an advertisement for that very tender — a bid Msibi allegedly wanted for a company called Camp Rock.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting. Chaskalson told the commission that while the Camp Rock bid was still under consideration, Msibi contacted Mashazi, who was then the city manager. And what happened next? The tender was eventually awarded to Camp Rock Pty Ltd. Chaskalson didn’t mince words: it was “the company he said had been nominated by Msibi.”

Folks, let that sink in. A taxi boss nominates a company. A city manager approves it. And the paper trail is sitting right there in a WhatsApp chat.

“Thanks Baba” — The Exchange That Says It All

But the messages didn’t stop at tender talk. The commission also captured a brief exchange after a call between Msibi and Mashazi. Mashazi wrote “thanks baba.” Msibi replied “okay sisi.”

Now, some might call that polite. Others might call it familiar. But in the context of a tender that was awarded to a company linked to Msibi, folks, that’s not just courtesy. That’s a relationship. And that relationship is now under the microscope.

Nxumalo, for his part, has disputed the authenticity and relevance of the messages. He filed an affidavit with the commission saying as much. But the commission isn’t backing down. It said it needs to establish Camp Rock’s directors before the evidence can be fully assessed. In other words, they want to know who was really behind that bid. And they’re not going to stop until they find out.

The R3.5 Million Question

Now, let’s talk about the jet. Because folks, this is where the story goes from bad to worse. In July 2022, Mashazi travelled to London with her husband and two friends. Not on a commercial flight. Not on a budget airline. On a privately chartered jet. Evidence before the commission put the cost at about R3.5 million. And who was involved in paying the aviation provider? Nxumalo’s company, ZIG Revenue Management.

Let me repeat that. A businessman who was in WhatsApp contact with a taxi boss about a tender — that same businessman’s company helped pay for a R3.5 million private jet for the city manager. And Mashazi never declared the trip while she was city manager. Never.

Evidence leader Advocate Adila Hassim SC was careful not to overstate what they know. She said there was no evidence at that stage establishing what Nxumalo received in return. But she argued — and folks, she argued well — that the extraordinary value of the flight raised serious questions about whether an expectation of influence, protection, or access existed.

You don’t spend R3.5 million on someone and expect nothing in return. That’s not how business works. That’s not how life works.

Nxumalo’s Defense

Nxumalo has denied that the flight was chartered specifically for Mashazi. His story? He says he had been asked to obtain a better quote for another businessman. That’s it. A better quote. For someone else.

Folks, I’ve been in this game a long time. And when someone spends R3.5 million on a private jet and then says “oh, I was just helping a friend get a better price,” my antennae go up. The commission is clearly not buying it either. They’re digging. And they’re asking the right questions.

The XET Connection — R483 Million and Counting

But wait. There’s more. And this is where the story gets even darker. Investigative reporting by TimesLIVE back in June 2026 revealed that XET Solutions — the IT services company that bankrolled Mashazi’s R3.35 million private-jet junket to London — extracted a staggering R483 million from the Ekurhuleni metro. How? Through alleged fraud, ghost employees, and wildly inflated billing.

Let me give you the numbers, folks, because they are staggering. One R4 million payment to XET was processed and released while Mashazi was en route to London on the XET-paid private jet. Think about that. She’s in the air, sipping champagne, and back home, the municipality is cutting a cheque to the company that’s paying for her flight.

XET was also at the heart of an IT rates billing scam in the 2023/2024 financial year that cost the municipality R2 billion. Two billion. With a B. And of the R483 million paid to XET, about R18 million cannot be linked to any processed invoices. Eighteen million rand. Gone. No paperwork. No explanation.

And here’s the kicker: on June 30, 2022 — the last day of the financial year — Ekurhuleni rushed to settle seven XET invoices worth R48 million. Five of those invoices were submitted only on that very day. Folks, that’s not efficiency. That’s a fire sale. That’s a desperate scramble to push money out the door before the books close.

The DA Steps In

It should come as no surprise that the Democratic Alliance (DA) has had enough. In mid-2026, the party laid fraud and corruption charges against Mashazi and her alleged benefactor. The case was opened at the Germiston police station. The charges cite tender-related allegations and the undeclared luxury trip.

Now, I’m not here to tell you who’s guilty and who’s not. That’s for the courts to decide. But when a political party lays criminal charges against a former city manager and a businessman over a private jet and a tender, you know the stench has reached the surface.

The Matlala Connection

And if you thought this was just about Mashazi and Nxumalo, think again. The City of Ekurhuleni has also referred a R3.7 million tender linked to the wife of alleged crime boss Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala to the Public Protector. That was back in March 2026. The city asked for a probe into alleged irregular tender awards.

Folks, let me connect the dots for you. You have a taxi boss. You have a controversial businessman. You have a former city manager. You have a private jet. You have a R483 million IT company. And now you have a tender linked to the wife of an alleged crime boss. This isn’t a coincidence. This is a pattern. This is a system.

The Bigger Picture

The Madlanga Commission has been running for months now. It was set up to investigate criminality, political interference, and corruption in the criminal justice system. But what we’re seeing here goes beyond the police. It goes beyond the courts. It goes straight into the heart of municipal governance.

The commission has previously heard evidence of alleged schemes to derail police discipline. We’ve heard about “blue lights” abuse — officials using police escorts for personal business. We’ve heard about millions in salary hikes inside Ekurhuleni structures. And now we’re hearing about WhatsApp messages, private jets, and tenders awarded to companies nominated by taxi bosses.

Folks, this is state capture at the municipal level. It’s smaller in scale than what we saw at Eskom or Transnet, but it’s the same playbook. Befriend the powerful. Get access. Get the tender. Get paid. And if anyone asks questions, deny everything and hope the commission runs out of steam.

But here’s the thing. The commission isn’t running out of steam. It’s just getting started. Chaskalson and Hassim are methodical. They’re thorough. And they’re not afraid to put the evidence on the table.

The question now is: what happens next? Will Camp Rock’s directors be identified? Will Nxumalo’s affidavit hold up under scrutiny? Will Mashazi be called back to explain the London trip? And most importantly, will the criminal charges laid by the DA lead to arrests?

I don’t have the answers, folks. But I can tell you this: the people of Ekurhuleni deserve better. They deserve to know why R483 million went to a company that couldn’t account for R18 million of it. They deserve to know why a city manager flew to London on a private jet paid for by a businessman she was dealing with on tenders. And they deserve to know why a taxi boss’s WhatsApp messages are now at the centre of a national corruption inquiry.

We’ll be watching. We’ll be reporting. And we’ll be holding them accountable. Because that’s what we do at Global 1 News. That’s what you expect from us. And that’s what South Africa needs right now.

Stay tuned, folks. This story is far from over.

By Jessica Ali, Staff Writer

This article was produced with AI-assisted research and editorial support. Sources: IOL, TimesLIVE, News24, EWN, SABC News.