The municipal manager of Mogalakwena Local Municipality in Limpopo’s Mokopane town has called on the Hawks to investigate a former employee he accuses of spreading fake social media posts linking him and Premier Phophi Ramathuba to a R1-billion corruption scandal.
Montego Morris Maluleka, who has led Mogalakwena since 2021, filed a sworn affidavit with the provincial Hawks office this week while on leave in Johannesburg. The 10-page document dissects anonymous accounts, bogus confessions and recycled allegations that recently resurfaced, purporting to show him admitting to corruption on the instructions of Ramathuba and Cooperative Governance MEC Basikopo Makamu.
One page, titled “Mogalakwena Corruption”, and another impersonating Maluleka directly, claim that he was preparing to surrender to the Hawks and had been assured that his jail term would not exceed a week. The posts further alleged that Mogalakwena had blown more than R1-billion in a single year.
“These claims are blatantly false. There has been no such confession by me, nor any truthful disclosure of wrongdoing on my part. To the contrary, these statements directly contradict the facts,” Maluleka stated.
He accused disgruntled former employee Victor Ntamala Mokonyane, who now leads a regional political party named On The Move, of being behind the campaign. Mokonyane was dismissed from Mogalakwena this year after a disciplinary process found him guilty of spreading false and defamatory allegations against municipal leadership.
The South African Local Government Bargaining Council upheld his dismissal in April.
Despite this, Maluleka says Mokonyane has persisted online under aliases such as DJ Money Mok. Among the claims attributed to him are that Maluleka laundered money, auctioned municipal vehicles for personal gain, and spent exorbitant amounts on a crony’s law firm.
He also allegedly circulated a fabricated “Breaking News” email claiming Maluleka had fled to Dubai to avoid arrest and spread what Maluleka called an “absurd” story about a R30-million bribe.
A Facebook user named Tshepo Ledwaba, also linked to On The Move, is accused of amplifying these claims. Even after receiving a cease-and-desist letter in May, Ledwaba allegedly continued posting.
“Both individuals have essentially been running a coordinated social media disinformation campaign,” Maluleka stated.
Court records show that in July 2024, the Limpopo High Court issued an interdict prohibiting Mokonyane from publishing allegations of corruption against Maluleka and other officials. When he ignored it, contempt proceedings followed. His attempt to overturn the interdict was dismissed.
In addition to the Hawks’ affidavit, Maluleka has laid a criminal case of crimen injuria with the police in Mokopane. Both Mokonyane and Ledwaba are listed as accused.
“The goal of this criminal case is to finally halt the defamatory campaign by holding the perpetrators personally accountable under criminal law,” he said.
Maluleka insists the fight is about more than his reputation. In a statement issued during the week, Ramathuba and Makamu dismissed the allegations as a malicious smear campaign.
When contacted by Sunday World, Mokonyane demanded to see the affidavit before responding, telling the newspaper, “As you are unable to share the said affidavit with us, we are unable to share any information with you or provide a response to the allegations made in the affidavit.”
