Flamboyant businesswoman and reality TV star Shauwn “Mamkhize” Mkhize has won over R1 billion in government tenders, fully funded by taxpayers’ money, it has emerged.
Mamkhize is currently under fire following her explosive interview on the investigative M-Net programme Carte Blanche.
ALSO READ: ‘She is a Criminal’ Mzansi Reacts To Shauwn Mkhize Interview With Carte Blanche
How The Drama Started
Two months ago, Carte Blanche probed the Msunduzi Local Municipality in Pietermaritzburg, the provincial capital of KwaZulu Natal. The city is in dire straits, and the municipality struggles financially to run it. Msunduzi Local Municipality owes Eskom R881 million and R551 million to Umngela-Uthukela water.
The authority fails to collect garbage, fix road potholes or even provide decent public toilets. The Pietermaritzburg and Midlands Chamber of Commerce told Carte Blanche that as of February 2024, the Msunduzi Local Municipality had cash to cover its services for 20 days only.
However, the plot thickens.
In 2023, Msunduzi Local Municipality proudly announced a deal to sponsor Royal AM, the football club Mamkhize owns. The local authority committed to pay Royal AM R27 million. It boggled minds how the broke authority could pay Mamkhize’s club that eye-watering amount.
Mamkhize Has Won Over R1 Billion In Government Tenders Funded By Taxpayers’ Money
Carte Blanche called Mamkhize a convicted fraudster in the expose, a label she almost challenged in court. She later withdrew the case and demanded an interview with the show, a PR disaster for the reality TV star.
Carte Blanche revealed that, in total, Mamkhize’s companies received more than R1 billion in government tenders since 2005. She grabbed contracts for taxpayers-funded projects that included low-cost housing and public works.
The figure could be way more.
In 2013, the Sunday Times reported that Mamkhize, then Shauwn Mpisane, received government tenders worth R1.1 billion within seven years. This was even though she was fighting fraud and tax evasion charges in court, among other legal troubles. Court cases hogged her from 2005 to 2012.
Shauwn Mkhize is the daughter of staunch ANC anti-apartheid activist and former women’s movement leader Florence Mkhize, who died in 1999.
In response to the scandal, Mamkhize was nonchalant:
“I’ve never [chosen] to be born in a political environment. Why can’t people look at me as a young black woman who has worked very hard? Who has pushed boundaries, who has opened doors and [broken] the walls? Now that I come from a very strong political background family, am I supposed to shy away from everything? Whatever I get it will be because of (sic)? Don’t you think it’s a bit unfair?”