Disgraced former Ekurhuleni city manager Imogen Mashazi has been brought down to earth with a bang, cutting a forlorn but unbowed figure in court this week.
As she listened the charges against her, the Sunday Times learned of two more luxury junkets she enjoyed courtesy of dodgy benefactors who bankrolled her jet-setting lifestyle.
In addition to her free trip to London in 2022 on a jet that cost more than R3m, Mashazi also enjoyed trips to Durban and Lesotho worth R1.2m, paid for by service providers that were apparently hoping to cash in on the multibillion-rand looting spree that has rocked the metro.
Mashazi appeared in court this week alongside three other top Ekurhuleni officials on charges arising from accusations that she blocked disciplinary procedures and approved unauthorised salary increases.
She has in recent months also been grilled at the Madlanga commission, which heard details of her R3.5m trip to London in July 2022. That trip was paid for by XET Solutions, which was awarded lucrative contracts by Ekurhuleni.
The Sunday Times can now reveal that Mashazi was a guest on at least two other flights in private jets, one from Johannesburg to Durban in December 2023 and another from Johannesburg to Maseru the following month. The total cost came to about R1.2m.
The trips are too short and super expensive, unless you have hundreds of thousands lying around and you don’t know what to do with them
— Aviation expert
Documents, payment records and immigration records show that tenderpreneur Pasugen Govender bankrolled the luxury charter flights.
Govender has links to Umkhonto Professional Services — a company that in June 2022 secured a place on an Ekurhuleni professional services panel. He footed the entire bill for the luxury charters aboard a Dassault Falcon 900 operated by Zenith Air, which were arranged by the private aviation broker Onyx Aviation.
The 45-minute hop to Maseru cost about R789,000 and the Durban excursion about R500,000. Evidence seen by the Sunday Times shows that Govender personally paid for the Durban trip, while the bill for the Maseru flight was settled through Saif Solar, a company that does not appear to be trading.
An aviation specialist who spoke to the Sunday Times on condition of anonymity said it made no sense for anyone to charter a private jet to Durban or Lesotho. “The trips are too short and super expensive, unless you have hundreds of thousands lying around and you don’t know what to do with them.”
The chartered jet excursions form part of a growing body of evidence showing how service providers and business associates in Mashazi’s orbit repeatedly bankrolled her taste for luxury, funding everything from overseas shopping trips to exclusive private jet travel.
Last month the Sunday Times exposed how XET Solutions, an IT services company contracted to Ekurhuleni at the time, paid R3.5m to fly Mashazi, her husband Raymond and two others to the UK four years ago.
Financial records reviewed by the Sunday Times show that the metro has paid XET Solutions close to R500m in the past seven years. Municipal officials are now probing the legitimacy of all monies paid to the company.
Weeks before the London trip, Ekurhuleni placed Umkhonto Professional Services, which in July last year changed its name to United Professional Services (UPS), on a three-year panel designed to fast-track the execution of capital projects for the metro.
Yashna Rabikissoon, director of the company, uses an e-mail address with the kspgroup.co.za domain, which is owned by the KSP Group, where Govender is both director and owner.
In response to questions from the Sunday Times, Rabikissoon did not explain her relationship with Govender and the KSP Group. She said she only became aware of her company’s appointment at Ekurhuleni when the newspaper brought it to her attention.
“We were not aware of our appointment by the City of Ekurhuleni. Upon receiving your questions, we discovered from the city’s website that we were appointed ... As matters stand today, we confirm that we have not rendered any goods nor any services pursuant to the notice on the city’s website. Consequently, we have not received any payment from the city consequent upon this supposed appointment,” she said.
Govender did not respond to questions about the flights or explain his relationship with Rabikissoon and UPS.
While it is not clear with whom Mashazi travelled to Durban, the Sunday Times learnt that she was accompanied on the Lesotho trip by the metro’s now-suspended chief information officer Moloko Monyepao, her former personal assistant Linda Wicker, and two other men believed to also be employed by the municipality.
Last month the Sunday Times reported that Monyepao and Mashazi’s children — Phumelela Mashazi and Dikeledi Monyepao — were employed by Idol Consulting Firm, a company that was contracted by the metro to implement IT projects.
Prosecutors allege that Mashazi’s actions amount to gratification. The acceptance of gratification by civil servants is outlawed under the Prevention & Combating of Corrupt Activities Act
There are allegations that under Monyepao’s watch, Ekurhuleni’s ICT department became a major extraction site in which politically connected companies syphoned off hundreds of millions. Monyepao remains suspended after the council’s IT billing system was hacked, resulting in the metro losing revenue north of R2bn.
Neither Mashazi nor Monyepao responded to questions.
This week Mashazi was arrested along with:
- Ekurhuleni legal services head Kemi Behari;
- head of human resources Linda Gxasheka; and
- suspended deputy chief of police Julius Mkhwanazi.
They appeared in the Germiston magistrate’s court on counts related to fraud, corruption, defeating the ends of justice and gratification.
The state alleges that after Mkhwanazi was suspended in February 2023 for receiving unauthorised vehicles from CAT VIP Protection, Mashazi and her co-accused actively frustrated disciplinary processes, eventually halting all internal investigations.
In what appears to have been a reward for helping protect Mkhwanazi from the disciplinary consequences, Mashazi allegedly pushed through substantial salary hikes for Behari and Gxasheka despite the council having expressly rejected the increases. Behari and Gxasheka’s annual packages both jumped from roughly R2.05m to more than R2.7m from one month to the next.
Prosecutors allege that Mashazi’s actions amount to gratification. The acceptance of gratification by civil servants is outlawed under the Prevention & Combating of Corrupt Activities Act.
All four were released on bail of R50,000 on Friday.
Govender’s links to UPS are also noteworthy because of the company’s involvement in litigation brought against it in the Mahikeng high court by the Rustenburg municipality, which accused it of acting with the KSP Group and a company called Rise Now Trading 34 to commit procurement fraud.
The municipality asked the court to review and set aside contracts awarded to the three entities, totalling hundreds of millions, as it believes they were unlawful and had elements of collusion. The court found in favour of the municipality.
The three entities allegedly shared a business address at Unit 5, Block B, Holwood Park, Canegate Road, Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal, and also operated from common premises on Beyers Naude Road in Rustenburg.
Their connection is further highlighted by an overlapping leadership structure in which Govender served as a director of KSP Group, while Yashna Balwanth, a former KSP Group employee, was a director for both Rise Now Trading 34 and Umkhonto Professional Services.
In legal documents submitted to the Mahikeng court, KSP Group, Rise Now Trading 34 and Umkhonto Professional Services did not deny the links between them outright.
Mashazi could not be reached for comment this week, while Monyepao did not respond to queries by the Sunday Times.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.