Deputy-President Paul Mashatile’s alleged luxury lifestyle has been in the spotlight since March, but the controversy has now spread to his children’s business dealings, reports News24.

SA company records show that 24 year old Thato Nokaneng, whose TikTok page is called ‘Unemployed girl chronicles’, in June last year scored a three-year firefighting and detecting tender – along with Mashatile’s son – from the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development, Netwerk24 reported.

Nokaneng and her sister Lefentse, are connected to Mashatile’s sons – Thabiso Mashatile, and Tinyiko Mvelase – and another business associate Nala Mahlakoana, in several enterprises.

Records from National Treasury show Nokaneng and filmmaker Mvelase were in charge at Ngwato and the Manzi Group when this contract was negotiated. Thabiso Mashatile confirmed that he is the company’s project manager.

Treasury referred questions about the value of the tender to the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development. The department’s Moses Raditlhalo said that, with a tender like this, the contractors are only called in and paid when there is work to be done.

Thabiso Mashatile has been in the news recently after News24 revealed that the fancy R37m home in Johannesburg where the Deputy-President is residing is registered to Legacy Properties, a company of which Thabiso Mashatile and his brother-in-law Nonceba Nonkwelo are directors.

The storm of controversy around Mashatile started in 2007 when the Mail & Guardian reported that, in 2005, two tenders worth a total of R20m were awarded to IT company Business Connexion, two months after they employed Mashatile’s daughter Palesa.

At the time, Mashatile was the Gauteng MEC for Finance. Both Mashatile and Business Connexion denied that there were irregularities, reports News24.

The company Modipadi Nokaneng (which is also Lefentse’s second name and surname) successfully bid for the three-year firefighting contract with Ngwato and the Manzi Group.

Current company records show Nokaneng and Mahlakoana are the sole directors of Ngwato and Manzi Group and Madipadi Nokaneng, but tender documents that National Treasury supplied to Netwerk24 show that Nokaneng, Mvelase and Lefentse were the bid leaders and contact persons for the tender bids, as well as when the tenders were awarded.

But even though Nokaneng and Mvelase are named as the contact persons, the cellphone number that was added as the contact number for Ngwato and Manzi Group on the tender documents actually belongs to Thabiso Mashatile.

He said: 'as former director of the company, my details could have been on record as contact person… and that is probably how the wrong number was recorded’. 

Full News24 report