heaps of tender documents, company records and related material to
construct this partial account of what I consider to be Magashule’s
history as a state captor. I call it a partial account because there is
certainly much more to uncover. Magashule’s ties to a certain business
family from Vereeniging, for example, do not feature in this book and
warrant further exploration. In fact, we might need a separate
commission of inquiry to help get to the bottom of the rot that infected
the Free State government during Magashule’s time in charge.
Magashule was given a fair opportunity to comment on the issues
explored in Gangster State, but he chose not to make use of it. More
than sixty questions sent to ANC spokesperson Dakota Legoete for the
attention of his boss remained unanswered.
In April 2017 , I ended my first book, The Republic of Gupta, with a
word of caution to the ruling African National Congress (ANC) that
many other observers have also issued: elect better leaders to your top
structures, or risk losing further support in the face of continuing state-
capture and corruption scandals.
Then Nasrec happened. In December 2017 , political spectators
watched – some with horror, others with bemusement – as, at its fifty-
fourth national conference, the ANC enacted the political equivalent of
shooting itself in the foot with an anti-aircraft gun. The election of Ace
Magashule and fellow ‘premier leaguer’ David Mabuza as the party’s
new secretary-general (SG) and deputy president respectively ensured
that allies of the disgraced Zuma would continue to besmirch the
party’s name and reputation. Their presence in the ANC’s Top Six
would also jeopardise President Cyril Ramaphosa’s so-called ‘new
dawn’, meant to revive the party’s founding values. Mabuza has since
craftily repositioned himself within the ANC’s broader power
nora
(Nora)
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