At 4.11am on a Thursday, 100 top managers in the Eastern Cape education department were ordered at short notice to clear one company’s R18.5m account within four days.<\/p>\n
And though the account was treated as a matter of urgency, IOL can today reveal that more than half the balance was less than 30 days old, and not yet overdue.<\/p>\n
The company is Khumzi Investments, whose sole director, Sakie Sakhumzi Magele, now owns Daily Dispatch, The Herald and the rest of the province’s former Arena Holdings newspapers.<\/p>\n
IOL has seen the email, sent on June 26, 2025 to departmental official Amos Tamsanqa Fetsha and 99 other top management members.<\/p>\n
“Dear top management members see attached as per instruction (sic) of the HOD, all outstanding payments to Khumzi to be concluded,” it read.<\/p>\n
The head of department is Sharon Maasdorp.<\/p>\n
Office managers were told to check the attachment and take it up with the chief directorates in their branches.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A named official would report back to Maasdorp by Monday, June 30, 2025, four days later.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The same attachment had already been posted to their internal work WhatsApp group, the sender noted, “for ease of reference”.<\/p>\n
IOL has also seen the attachment, a spreadsheet titled “Khumzi Recon”.<\/p>\n
It reconciled the department’s account with Khumzi across 167 invoices dated between October 21, 2019 and June 6, 2025, spread over 48 directorates and categories.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The total invoiced was R25,635,112.06.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of that, R7,149,957.37 had been paid and R18,485,154.69 was outstanding.<\/p>\n
The spreadsheet’s own ageing schedule showed how little of that was actually overdue.<\/p>\n
R2,759,772.82 was recorded as current, meaning not yet due at all. A further R8,009,074.01 sat in the 30-day bracket, R1,546,594.94 at 60 days and R1,269,706.18 at 90 days.<\/p>\n
Only R4,900,006.74, roughly a quarter of the balance, was older than 120 days.<\/p>\n
The source who provided the documents would not discuss Magele over the phone and asked to meet IOL in person, saying it was safer that way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The meeting with the source took place in KuGompo City, formerly East London.<\/p>\n
“He holds so much influence in the department that even the head of department, Sharon Maasdorp, is just a phone call away when he needs to sort out payment issues for his company,” the source said.<\/p>\n
“He is a big guy and calls the shots. No one stands in his way when he wants to speak to the head of department.”<\/p>\n
The source asked not to be named, saying they feared losing their job.<\/p>\n
Khumzi billed almost every arm of the department.<\/p>\n
There were invoices against assessments and examinations, youth and special programmes, e-teaching and learning, facilities management and infrastructure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The national school nutrition programme and internal auditing were billed too.<\/p>\n
Many of the descriptions refer to a number of officials, or to a number of “pax”, the travel trade’s word for passengers. What Khumzi was billing for was largely accommodation and travel.<\/p>\n
The single largest exposure is the office of the MEC, at R3,639,440.24, of which R3,522,416.96 was outstanding. The office of the head of department accounts for a further R546,896.13.<\/p>\n
Invoicing surged eightfold in 2025<\/p>\n
In all of 2024, Khumzi invoiced the department 29 times, for a total of R2,542,492.02. In the first five months and six days of 2025, it invoiced 114 times, for a total of R20,904,237.84.<\/p>\n
That is eight times the money in less than half the time.<\/p>\n
Twelve of the invoices, worth R1,632,314.10, carry no order number at all. Six of those date from 2019 and were still unpaid when the reconciliation was drawn.<\/p>\n
Eleven invoices predating 2022, totalling R1,577,430.60, also remained unpaid. The oldest was dated October 21, 2019.<\/p>\n
It is not the first time the department’s payments to Khumzi have drawn scrutiny.<\/p>\n
Sunday Times reported in May 2022 that the company received R39.8m from the department in a single month in April 2021.<\/p>\n
That was made up of R22.1m for the accommodation of teachers brought in to assist with extracurricular activities, and R17.7m for training courses.<\/p>\n
Magele refused to answer that newspaper’s questions, referring them to his attorney, who said the information sought was covered by confidentiality agreements her client was not willing to breach.<\/p>\n
Maasdorp is herself under investigation.<\/p>\n
In December 2025 Premier Oscar Mabuyane asked the Public Service Commission to look into a series of allegations raised by education MEC Fundile Gade.<\/p>\n
An inquiry chaired by commissioner Vusumuzi Mavuso sat in KuGompo City in April.<\/p>\n
The allegations included that Maasdorp attempted to influence a relative’s matric results, irregularly suspended and demoted senior officials, interfered in procurement processes, and authorised the transfer of R80m earmarked for the purchase of a school that was never bought.<\/p>\n
Another allegation is that she suspended a director who refused to sign a procurement contract awarding work to a service provider who allegedly bought a house for her, or contributed to payments on the house she occupies.<\/p>\n
IOL understands the service provider referred to is linked to Magele.<\/p>\n
The department’s suspended communications director, Vuyiseka Mboxela, was due to testify at the inquiry about what she described as the close relationship between the head of department and a certain departmental service provider.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She did not name the provider either.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When approached for comment, Mboxela told IOL she had “no desire to say anything”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The commission’s report went to Mabuyane. Its findings have not been made public.<\/p>\n
From government contractor to newspaper owner<\/p>\n
Magele’s reach allegedly extends past the department’s ledger.<\/p>\n
When The Voice Lounge, the online station linked to him, was formed in August last year, it ran a series of advertisements in Daily Dispatch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An advertorial appeared in both that title and The Herald, promoting free, curriculum-targeted tuition for pupils in the province.<\/p>\n
Both newspapers still belonged to Arena Holdings at the time.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a Voice Lounge gathering late last year, streamed on YouTube, Bongani Siqoko, then a senior Arena executive, said the relationship went back further still.<\/p>\n
“We are actually proud of The Voice Lounge as Arena Holdings. They believe in what we believe in,” Siqoko said.<\/p>\n
“At Arena Holdings, we believe in partnerships.<\/p>\n
“We believe that ecosystems are built through partnerships. We are proud to have been one of the very first partners of The Voice Lounge.<\/p>\n
“We knew this platform when it was still an idea, before there were presenters, before there was a production team, before there were studios and microphones.”<\/p>\n
Nine months later, Arena signed its entire Eastern Cape stable over to Ubuntu Media Holdings, and Siqoko became its chief executive.<\/p>\n
Records held by the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission, obtained by IOL, showed Ubuntu Media Holdings, registration 2026\/154195\/07, was registered on February 20 2026 as a shelf company under the name K2026154195.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Its name was changed to Ubuntu Media Holdings with effect from April 30 2026, the same day Arena staff were told of the deal and the day before it took effect.<\/p>\n
Its registered and postal address is 16 Empire Road, Parktown, Johannesburg. That is Arena Holdings’ own head office.<\/p>\n
The company has three directors.<\/p>\n
The first, appointed on the day of registration, is Letlhogonolo Alloysias Molebeledi, better known as Pule Molebeledi, the group chief executive of Arena Holdings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His residential address on the record is 16 Empire Road.<\/p>\n
Magele was appointed on May 5 2026, four days after the titles had already changed hands.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The third director, Johannes Hermanus Peyper, was appointed the same day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He is of Peyper Attorneys in Bloemfontein, the firm that acts for Magele.<\/p>\n
From February 20 to May 5 2026, through the entire period in which the transaction was concluded and took effect, Ubuntu Media Holdings had a single director, and he was the chief executive of the company selling the newspapers.<\/p>\n
In his message to staff on April 30, Molebeledi described the counterparty only as “an Eastern Cape-based private investment group”.<\/p>\n
“Both partners have committed that the editorial independence and identity of each title will remain intact, maintaining the standards and credibility that define their role in our media ecosystem,” he said.<\/p>\n
He named no company and no individual.<\/p>\n
The deal covered Daily Dispatch, The Herald, The Rep, Talk of the Town and Go! & Express, and took effect on May 1 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Daily Dispatch and The Voice Lounge are expected to share premises at a building Magele owns in Vincent, KuGompo City, from this month.<\/p>\n
Siqoko has since resigned.<\/p>\n
Staff at the newspapers did not receive their July salaries on the due date.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The SA National Editors’ Forum said last week that the money had not been paid, and employees published an anonymous open letter saying many were unpaid, that silence had replaced communication and that they feared victimisation.<\/p>\n
The salaries were paid late on Thursday night and in the early hours of Friday morning, after IOL published its first report on the takeover.<\/p>\n
Magele\u2019s attorney threatens legal action<\/p>\n
IOL put detailed questions to Magele through his attorney last Thursday, with a deadline of 10.30pm on Saturday.<\/p>\n
At 8.26pm that Saturday, Hector Schoeman of Peyper Attorneys confirmed the firm acted for Magele and said IOL’s correspondence contained numerous serious allegations founded on what appeared to be confidential commercial, corporate, employment and procurement information.<\/p>\n
He said the deadline was unreasonable and did not give his client a meaningful opportunity to verify the material.<\/p>\n
Schoeman demanded that IOL hand over the documentation on which its questions were based, and required written confirmation that neither the reporter nor IOL would publish any further article on the matters until his client had considered it.<\/p>\n
“Should any publication contain inaccurate, false, misleading or defamatory allegations, or rely upon confidential information unlawfully obtained or disclosed, we hold instructions to institute urgent legal proceedings, without further notice to you,” he said.<\/p>\n
IOL editor Lance Witten replied on Monday morning.<\/p>\n
“IOL is under no obligation to furnish you with our source material, nor to disclose how the information was obtained,” Witten said.<\/p>\n
“Your client has been afforded a more than reasonable amount of time, in excess of 72 hours, to respond to the queries from our journalist, [reporter], which is far greater than the precepts of the Press Code.”<\/p>\n
Witten gave Magele until 6pm on Monday to answer.<\/p>\n
Schoeman then reiterated his Saturday letter and said his client would, if necessary, institute urgent legal proceedings without further notice and seek a punitive costs order.<\/p>\n
No answer was given to any of the questions put.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Those included what Khumzi supplied to the education department, under what contract it was appointed, what accounts for the escalation in invoicing, how the invoices carrying no order number were authorised, what Magele’s relationship with Maasdorp is, and what his shareholding in Ubuntu Media Holdings is.<\/p>\n
Questions were sent to Gade’s spokesperson, Velani Mbiza-Gola, five days ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No response had been received by the time of publication.<\/p>\n
Company records showed Magele registered or joined more than 20 entities in 22 years, starting with Sakizandi Trading, a close corporation he took full control of in June 2004.<\/p>\n
Fourteen carried the status of annual return final deregistration, applied by the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission to companies that fail to lodge their annual returns.<\/p>\n
A 15th, the labour broking company Isidingo Personnel, is in provisional liquidation, and a 16th, Ubuntu Farm College, is in the deregistration process.<\/p>\n
That leaves five still in business. Two of those were registered this year. One is Ubuntu Media Holdings, through which Magele took the newspapers.<\/p>\n
The other is the Khumzi Empowerment Foundation, registered on June 23 2026, three weeks after the takeover became public. The remaining three are Khumzi Investments, which holds the state contracts, and two others, Kids Etc and Naldovision.<\/p>\n
IOL previously reported that Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality awarded Khumzi a three-year travel management contract in October last year, under tender CE 595.<\/p>\n
The municipality had advertised for a panel of four agencies working on a rotational basis and received 11 bids. It appointed one.<\/p>\n
The award document records a score of 100 and gives the reason in four words, “only responsive bidder”. Khumzi had quoted R10,613,278.98.<\/p>\n
Municipal spokesperson Luzuko Buku gave IOL a different account. He said 11 bids were received and two were found non-responsive, and that “two bidders qualified for appointment and one out of the two providers bidders declined”.<\/p>\n
He did not say what became of the other seven. Buku refused to disclose the contract’s value, the dates of the bid committee sittings, the amount paid to Khumzi to date or the address Khumzi gave on its bid form, saying the information was “confidential between the service provider and [the municipality]”.<\/p>\n
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