Gangster State

National Urban Reconstruction and Housing Agency (NURCHA), an
arm of the national Department of Human Settlements, there was no
shortage of investigations into the saga.
The Special Investigating Unit had also been on the scene since early
2012. While briefing Parliament’s portfolio committee on housing in
August 2012 , Sexwale said that the SIU had been tasked with probing
the Free State contracts under ‘Special Presidential Proclamation No.
35 ’,^41 which called for a wide-ranging investigation into fraud and
corruption involving the national and provincial housing departments
and local authorities.^42 Sexwale also told the committee that the Free
State’s housing debacle involved irregular expenditure of at least R 500
million.^43 Later, in court filings, the department itself indicated that
about R 500 million of taxpayers’ money had been flushed down the
toilet.^44
‘No stone will be left unturned in our drive to arrive at the centre of
any housing related questionable financial misconduct,’ Sexwale vowed
before the committee. ‘This is disheartening because this is poor
people’s money. I will be taking this issue to the Cabinet.’^45 He even
suggested that the provincial department could be placed under
administration in accordance with Section 100 of the Constitution.
With only months to go before the ANC convened in Mangaung for its
national conference, Sexwale’s statement was a barely veiled attack on
Magashule and his provincial administration.
But it would be his final say on the matter. Sexwale’s bid to become
the ANC’s deputy president at the party’s fifty-third national
conference was a complete failure. He did not even make it onto the
eighty-member NEC.^46 Zuma axed him as housing minister not long
thereafter.^47