Music promoter hits R2.4bn high note with SA Express fuel tender

A little-known music promoter was awarded a R2.4-billion, three-year deal to supply SA Express with fuel — at a cool R67-million a month — despite the troubled airline already having a contract to receive jet fuel from SAA.

The Sunday Times can today reveal that two SA Express executives, Sam Vilakazi and Merriam Mochoele, allegedly engineered the deal with EML Energy, owned by Pretoria music promoter Eldridge Motlhake, without any tender process or the knowledge of the airline’s board and management.

SA Express did not receive one drop of fuel for the R2.4-billion deal. “I can’t comment due to contractual obligations,” Motlhake said last night. Neither Vilakazi nor Mochoele  could be reached for comment. 

The Sunday Times has seen the contract, which is now the subject of an investigation.

Little is known about Motlhake, who has a habit of posting pictures of himself with South Africa’s rich and powerful on Facebook.

The Sunday Times visited the head office of EML Energy yesterday. It is a nondescript house with palisade fencing in the Pretoria suburb of Akasia.

Read the full story in the Sunday Times.