42 TheEconomistNovember 14th 2020
1T
he residents of the township in
Bloemfontein call it Dark City. The area
was one of many segregated neighbour-
hoods built during apartheid. Today it is a
microcosm of the failures of the ruling Af-
rican National Congress (anc): pock-
marked roads, sporadic electricity, erratic
rubbish collection and house after house
of people unable to find work. And, on the
top of most, roofs made of asbestos.
These should be long gone. In 2014 the
regional government awarded a contract
worth 255m rand ($23.5m) to survey and re-
move the health hazards. But in Dark City,
as in most of Free State province, there is
nothing to show for it. Geelbooi Mzaza,
who has lived in the area since 1995, says
that nurses have told him that asbestos is
worsening his tuberculosis. “They said I
had to move, but I have nowhere to go.”
Corrupt procurement deals are ubiqui-
tous in South Africa. So much so that the
country coined the term “tenderpreneur”to describe politically connected winners
of public contracts. Under Jacob Zuma (pic-
tured, centre), president from 2009 to 2018,
the corruption reached such kleptocratic
levels it became known as “state capture”.
One of the former president’s closest al-
lies was Ace Magashule (pictured, left). To-
day Mr Magashule is the secretary-general
of the anc, one of the most powerful peo-
ple in the party and the locus of internal re-
sistance to Mr Zuma’s successor, Cyril Ra-
maphosa (pictured, right). For several
years there has been speculation that Mr
Magashule would be brought to book for
corruption in Free State, where he was pre-mier during the Zuma presidency. On No-
vember 10th he was issued with a warrant
for his arrest on corruption charges related
to the asbestos case. (He denies any wrong-
doing.) The move by the country’s National
Prosecuting Authority (npa) and the
Hawks, a police unit, may therefore prove
good news not just for people like Mr
Mzaza, but also for Mr Ramaphosa.
Mr Magashule’s alleged role in the as-
bestos deal was described in “Gangster
State” by Pieter-Louis Myburgh, a journal-
ist. The book, published in 2019, drew on
leaked documents and a spreadsheet used
by Igo Mpambani, one of two businessmen
given the contract (and who was murdered
in his Bentley in broad daylight in 2017).
Last month the other businessman, Edwin
Sodi, was arrested. “Gangster State” alleged
that Mpambani shared the proceeds of the
tender with various insiders, including Mr
Magashule, whom Mr Myburgh placed
close to the businessman soon after the lat-
ter made large withdrawals of cash. The au-
thor later estimated that just 3% of the
funds went to the clean-up.
The case is one of many scandals from
Mr Magashule’s time as premier. Others in-
clude a taxpayer-funded trip to Cuba for
him and fellow “comrades”, and shoddily
completed contracts for low-cost housing
that involved Thoko Malembe, his daugh-
ter. Then there is the other major case be-South AfricaAce in the hole?
BLOEMFONTEIN
The imminent arrest of a ruling-party bigwig is good news for Cyril RamaphosaMiddle East & Africa
43 WhyZambiamaydefault
44 Fed-upfeministsinEgypt
45 Palestinians mourn Saeb ErekatAlso in this section