projects that were awarded without following proper procurement
processes. Year after year, the AG highlighted this troubling
phenomenon, but the department made no effort to rectify the situation,
as evidenced by its consistently ludicrous irregular-expenditure figures.
Irregular expenditure on dodgy contracts could possibly be forgiven if
the department had fulfilled its mandate of delivering decent housing.
But that was simply not the case. While Magashule’s associates,
friends and family stuffed their pockets, the province completely
missed its housing targets. Today, thousands of incomplete or poorly
built RDP houses are strewn all over the Free State. It is a horrific
legacy for a politician who has branded himself as a champion of the
poor.
So how did it all begin? Shortly after being sworn in as Free State
premier on 6 May 2009 , Magashule announced with great fanfare that
his administration would build ‘bigger and better’ houses. These
houses would be 50 square metres in size, he promised, an
improvement on the 40 square metres previously specified for RDP
houses.^6 The man who would help him roll out this new strategy was
Mosebenzi Zwane, the freshly appointed MEC for human settlements.^7
While at the time it seemed that Magashule was driven by noble
intentions, the benefit of hindsight has led several sources, including
current and former department insiders, to view the development in a
different light.
When Magashule announced his plan to build bigger houses, the
department had already finalised its planning for the following
financial year. It had appointed about ninety contractors, who would
altogether build roughly 16 000 houses, a former senior staffer told me.
However, these builders had been appointed in accordance with the old
nora
(Nora)
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