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A war over tenders in 13 coal mines has engulfed the Emakhazeni municipal area with heavily-armed hitman showing up every now and then.

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Sizwe sama Yende

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 In 2023, a  44-year-old mining plant hire business owner, Mshoza Malaza, survived an ambush from rifle-wielding hitman in a small Mpumalanga township – Siyathuthuka – near Emkhazeni (formerly Belfast).

Two years later, the hitman caught up with Malaza. This time they were precise and fatally shot him at Phumula section near Middelburg.

Malaza died entangled in bitter war for tenders in the coal mining Belfast area. There had been many incidents of shootings among rival groups, with strong claims that politicians were also having vested interests in the 13 mines in Belfast.

Malaza was raking in millions as part of mining giant Exxaro’s Enterprise Supplier Development (ESD) programme. He owned UMI Plant Hire which was granted a R10 million interest-free loan to purchase two articulated dump trucks in 2020.

This enabled Malaza to grow as a supplier of  equipment to a contract miner at Exxaro’s Belfast operation. The funding, according to Exxaro, saved UMI Plant Hire R150 000 in monthly leasing costs and strengthened its asset base.

Mpumalanga police spokesperson, Colonel Jabu Ndubane, said that police attended a shooting scene on February 2 around 10pm and found a male lying supine in the middle of the road at Skhosana Street, Phumula section.

That was Malaza. He had been sprayed with seven bullets and holes were visible all over his body.

“The emergency service was called and he was certified dead by paramedics,” Ndubane said. “Eleven cartridges of a 9mm were found on the scene.”

She said no arrest has been made yet and the case was transferred to the provincial Murder and Robbery Unit.

Malaza told this journalist after his shooting in 2023 that he had been awarded a multimillion-rand contract at Precision Opencast Mining Services for topsoil stripping and rehabilitation, and had no doubt that the attempt on his life was related to his business interests.

When he was ambushed then, Malaza was driving with his daughters. The hitmen shot his right hand and hip as he curled up in the driver’s seat in an attempt to avoid the bullets. Fortunately, his daughters escaped unscathed.

A few days later after this incident, his house was bombed with mining explosives as he and his family had gone to hiding.

Malaza allege back then that politicians in Emakhazeni had vested interests in the mining businesses and that the local economic development office within the Emakhazeni Local Municipality had been forwarding names of companies to the mines to be awarded tenders.

“I started receiving threats as early as August last year, before the mine awarded the tender to my company. These people were telling me that they knew where my children went to school, but I took their threats lightly and ignored warnings from other people,” Malaza said.

Malaza died without knowing the people who attempted to kill him as police had not made a breakthrough. He had said that his private investigator found that R1 million had been placed on his life and two partners.

In 2020, Malaza’s cousin had his house petrol-bombed and his associate shot six times after they had had approached Maboko Colliery, a subsidiary of the Mbuyelo Group, to find out why employment and procurement opportunities were not trickling down to the locals, as had been promised in the social labour plans.

The shooting happened as they were sitting in a car outside a tavern.