Witness Mazanga, a Zimbabwean pastor with three different South African identities, received contracts worth more than R500 million at City Power, despite being implicated in defrauding the broke Johannesburg-owned entity.
The Department of Home Affairs stated in April that it was investigating the pastor’s alleged fraudulent identities but that City Power was “impeding” the probe into Mazanga.
A News24 investigation – which included a detailed background and company search, public postings from his social media accounts, and credible information from a person close to his family – found that the reverend has three names in South Africa: Witness Mazanga, Thembinkosi Ndlovu and Witness Sithole.
The more than R500 million figure is the minimum amount News24 was able to trace in contract values received by Mazanga-related businesses, as listed in City Power’s official annual and performance reports, as well as on tender-awarding portals.
However, the pastor’s companies, Chosen Engineering and Acts Empire, have been consistently among a handful of firms on the electricity entity’s panel for the R1 billion annual maintenance budget since at least September 2021.
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In 2023, City Power stated in its internal records that Chosen Engineering was among eight companies which “defrauded” the municipal firm of more than R335 million over a six-month period.
Although the municipal entity said in October 2023 that Chosen Engineering had submitted “deceptive invoices” to claim payment for maintenance work that was supposedly conducted, City Power continued to grant its contractor more jobs, including keeping it on subsequent infrastructure panels.
Moreover, News24 unearthed the pastor’s extensive links at City Power through shared addresses, including that of his brother, Forward Sithole, who holds a managerial role at the municipal entity and uses the South African name Sam Sithole.
