MPUMALANGA MAN LIVES IN FEAR FOR HIS LIFE

Mpumalanga businessman Alex Masilela lives in fear for his life

An Mpumalanga businessman Alex Masilela lives in fear for his life, and also reckons the Mpumalanga Department of Education is on a mission to destroy his company.

Masilela told Tshwane Talks on Wednesday that the Education Department abuses court processes and wastes taxpayers money by using the courts of law to delay in paying him R509 000 for food that he delivered at various schools in the province prior to the Covid-19- related national lockdown that was declared in March 2020.

“As a result of corruption that is at play in the Mpumalanga Department of Education, I again lost an income of R2,8 million during the period between November/December 2024 and January/ February 2025,” lamented Masilela while in the process revealing that the current Premier of Mpumalanga Mandla Ndlovu is ignoring his calls but instead sends him “shocking” responses via a private email address.

“I tried reaching out to the MEC for Education as well as his Chief of Staff but my efforts have been in vain up until now,” he said.

“It is clear that by failing to pay me what is due to me, the Mpumalanga Department of Education is trying to destroy my company because there is no way I can continue to run the company without a steady income,” he explained.

“If you think the R2 million tender fraud related to the purchasing of lap tops in Mpumalanga was gigantic, then you ain’t seen nothing yet because the multi-million school nutrition programme scandal is much more gigantic than that,” fumed Masilela.

The said lap top tender scandal in Mpumalanga, which was discovered 5 months ago, entails 22 lap tops which were purchased for a whooping R2 million by the Mpumalanga Department of Education.

Masilela is appealing to Premier Ndlovu to dismiss Head of the Mpumalanga Department of Education Lucy Hluyana Moyane from work due to the corruption and maladministration taking place in her department.

Masilela revealed that he has received death threats from unknown people and that he is therefore living in fear for his life.

Furthermore, Masilela stated that the R2 million he lost was also as a result of corrupt senior government officials who awarded themselves tenders during the month of November 2024.

“There was a rush to award themselves tenders and as a result they forgot that have extended my contract because they had not given me a letter that terminates my contract,” lamented Masilela.

“How is it that they gave notice of termination to all service providers except myself,” he asked.

“This is an abuse of power,” he said emphatically.

“Remember that my contract was meant to expire on 31 March 2025 but the awarded the contract to someone else in November 2024, while my contract was still valid and I got surprised in January when the schools refused to accept food from me,” he said.

He told Tshwane Talks that he had 16 employees in his restaurant but is now left with only four employees.

“My business is going to be liquidated by the bank, so what is this inclusive growth and employment opportunities that the Premier of Mpumalanga Mandla Ndlovu was talking about at the mining expo conference for two whole days,” he asked.