Tshwane granted a staggering R95m water transport payment to an obscure company that does not appear to own tankers and is run by a sole director living in an RDP house in Soshanguve with a child who attends a no-fee school.
The jarring mismatch has ignited suspicions that the director — Eunice Nontobeko Mkhonza — may have fronted for powerful figures in the city’s lucrative water-tanker economy.
An investigation by the Sunday Times found that the City of Tshwane paid Mkhonza’s company, Nomakhuwa Trading and Projects, R95m to cart water in financial 2025, despite strong indications the company lacked the equipment, infrastructure and capacity to perform services on that scale.
A month ago, the Sunday Times revealed that senior ANC figures in Tshwane had benefited directly from the metro’s R777m water‑tanker bonanza, with politically connected companies paid millions despite owning no tankers.
However, the case of Nomakhuwa Trading and Projects takes the scandal deeper, raising the spectre of systematic fronting for powerful interests lurking behind Tshwane’s water‑tanker ecosystem.
Mkhonza lives in a nondescript government RDP house in Block HH, a dusty neighbourhood in Soshanguve, some 45km north of Pretoria. She has made modest improvements to the house, including a perimeter wall and a remote-controlled steel gate. Her company shares the same address.
When the Sunday Times visited the site, there was no sign of water tankers or the operational infrastructure required to deliver water at a scale that would justify a R95m payout.
National Traffic Information System (eNatis) records reflect that Nomakhuwa owns five medium-duty freight trucks, but no water tankers.
Delivering water at this scale typically requires storage tanks or reservoirs, a secured vehicle yard or depot, fuel and maintenance arrangements, trained drivers and support staff, dispatch and record‑keeping systems, and compliance documentation relating to water quality and safety.
A neighbour expressed shock when he heard that Mkhonza was paid R95m. He said there was no indication that she was a millionaire. She drove a VW Polo and her child attended a quintile 1 school
In the absence of such infrastructure, it is unclear how Nomakhuwa could have executed the payment, raising questions about whether Mkhonza has legitimate business operations or functioned merely as an intermediary billing vehicle.
Mkhonza had a brief phone conversation with the Sunday Times on Thursday. She dropped the call when asked how she was able to transport water and get paid R95m without water tankers and the required infrastructure. She did not respond to follow-up questions sent via WhatsApp.
A neighbour who spoke to the Sunday Times on condition of anonymity expressed shock when he heard that Mkhonza was paid R95m. He said there was no indication that she was a millionaire. She drove a VW Polo and her child attended a nearby quintile 1 school, he said.
A second source, who also did not want to be named, told the Sunday Times that Mkhonza is a sister of Mandla Jeffrey Mgcina, director of another water-tanker company — Ivoline Trading Enterprise — to which Tshwane officials paid R5.5m for trucking water, also in financial 2025.
The Sunday Times was not able to verify that they are siblings, but Mkhonza had a three-month stint as a director of Ivoline in 2020. Mgcina has a small depot, packed with about a dozen water tankers and other equipment, about 1km from Mkhonza’s house.
Last month Mgcina was mentioned at the Madlanga commission, which is probing allegations that South Africa’s criminal justice system has been compromised by organised crime, corruption and political interference.
Evidence leader advocate Matthew Chaskalson SC revealed that Mgcina is the nephew of leading taxi boss Joe “Ferrari” Sibanyoni. Mgcina was mentioned along with Tshwane’s chief financial officer Gareth Mnisi in connection with a R59m payment made to a security company, Gubis85 Solutions.
Information from publicly available databases shows that Mgcina is a taxi owner in his own right, affiliated with the Soshanguve Taxi Owners Association. He did not respond to requests for comment sent to his mobile number and two e-mail addresses.
No accusations of wrongdoing have been levelled against Sibanyoni at the Madlanga commission, but his name featured repeatedly in evidence concerning irregular and questionable security payments in Tshwane. Concerns have surfaced at the commission about a troubling intersection between the taxi industry and the city’s tender system.
Nomakhuwa Trading and Projects is one of about 40 companies to which Tshwane paid an eye-watering R777m for water-trucking payments in financial 2025. The Sunday Times pieced together the payments to Mkhonza’s company and other water tankers by examining spreadsheets, internal financial records, invoices, water-tanker expenditure and company registry data.
Nomakhuwa is just one example of an entity that received handsome water transport payments from the metro despite an apparent absence of tankers. Another is Grab Assets Solutions, sole director Ntsabi Shabalala, which was paid R33.5m in financial 2025.
Data from eNatis shows that the intriguingly named company, whose registered address is Swartdam, a small rural community near Soshanguvhe on the border with North West, has nine Landini Solis tractors and two medium-duty freight trucks. Shabalala, whose latest residential address is in Thembisa, is also employed as an office administrator by Medtronic Africa, a medical equipment manufacturer in Midrand. Shabalala did not respond to requests for comment.
Last month the Sunday Times revealed that Tshwane deputy mayor Eugene “Bonzo” Modise and the ANC’s treasurer in the Tshwane region, James Shelenge, have been beneficiaries of the municipality’s water tanker payments. Tshwane’s bureaucrats paid Shelenge’s company, Best Enough Trading and Projects 669, which he co-directs with his wife Ntombifuthi Valeria Shelenge, R30m for delivering water to needy communities. The company owns six trucks, none of which appears to be a water tanker.
In February last year Shelenge launched a buying spree for somewhat more glamorous vehicles. Within eight months he splurged about R11m on four cars — one valued at about R2.3m through Absa vehicle finance and three through BMW Finance. These had sticker prices of about R3.3m, R1m and R4.3m. The makes and models of the vehicles are not immediately clear.
Tshwane’s city manager Johann Mettler has now asked the Special Investigating Unit to probe the metro’s water-tanker expenditure
In June Shelenge, who is also a pastor, bought a property for R2.3m.
Modise, the deputy mayor — he is also the metro’s mayoral committee member for finance and chair of the ANC in the Tshwane region — was once a director of a company called Gofa-One, to which Tshwane paid R1.7m for water-transport services in 2024.
Although he stepped down as a director the previous year, before he became a councillor, he still maintains ties to the company, which he founded with his late mother in 2010. Gofa-One’s registered address is Modise’s family home in Mabopane, northwest of Pretoria.
Tshwane’s city manager Johann Mettler has now asked the Special Investigating Unit to probe the metro’s water-tanker expenditure. The investigation, which began last month and is expected to take about a year, will try to get to the bottom of the apparent irregularities and establish if the metro received value for money.
The City of Tshwane has disputed that its 2025 water-tanker expenditure amounts to R777m. The metro’s spokesperson, Selby Bokaba, has previously told the Sunday Times that verified payments to service providers for the period in question total R621m. The R156m gap is under review, as preliminary checks had flagged duplications and administrative errors in the city’s records, he said.
DA Tshwane caucus leader Cilliers Brink said the party had long believed that piercing the corporate veil of water‑tanker companies would expose senior ANC figures benefiting from the city’s ballooning tanker spend.
Recent media reports linking Modise and Shelenge to the contracts, he said, had begun to validate that view, and the focus should now turn to identifying other shadow directors.
Brink said mayor Nasiphi Moya’s credibility on the “water‑tanker mafia” issue was undermined by her failure to remove Modise as finance MMC, despite unchallenged evidence that he is the beneficial owner of companies doing business with the city. Keeping the tender‑linked politician in charge of municipal finances, he said, weakens efforts to curb systemic corruption and rein in tanker spending.
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