disciplinary proceedings] forgot that the State Law Advisors were
asked – at the offices of the Premier – to advise on the drafting of the
contracts.’
Their counsel added that the ERP ‘was thoroughly researched,
contracts drafted and the “OK” given by inter alia Mr Tsoametsi, Mr
Taka [the FSHS’s deputy director for legal services], the State Law
Advisor and Mr Bertus Venter at the Premier’s office’.
The officials argued that if they had been implicated in an unlawful
scheme, it was because they were acting on orders from higher up.
‘The applicants never took the decision to implement the advance
payment system,’ reads their submission. ‘[This] was introduced
through a decision taken by the Member of the Executive Council
[Zwane], the Head of the Department [Mokoena] and the Chief
Financial Officer [Dlamini].’
As mentioned earlier, these arbitration proceedings are ongoing. But it
seems almost certain that Magashule and some of his key henchmen,
including Zwane, orchestrated and executed the plan that resulted in
the FSHS emptying its coffers in record time.
The court application that included Mokhesi’s affidavit was lodged in
late 2016. The department sought to have the Bloemfontein High Court
review and set aside its contracts with 106 companies: 85 building
contractors and 21 materials suppliers. In terms of trying to retrieve
some of the misspent money, however, the department instituted action
proceedings against just 22 of the companies in an attempt to recover
R 631 million. Surprisingly, these included all 21 materials suppliers
and only one building contractor. The department was clearly targeting
the materials suppliers.^19