10

Rewarding friends and punishing foes

While poring over Tim Mokhesi’s

affidavit and the FSHS’s court

application, I noticed something

interesting.

As mentioned previously, there were 106 respondents in the
department’s 2016 court application, including the 22 companies from
which the department sought to recover R 631 million. Of the 106
respondents, 93 are closed corporations or private companies. The
remaining respondents are natural persons listed in their capacity as
trustees of trusts that received money from the department.
Relying on the court papers, the Sunday Times had revealed in
January 2017 that former SABC chief operating officer Hlaudi
Motsoeneng and the wife of sport minister Fikile Mbalula were among
those listed as respondents.^1 Motsoeneng and Mbalula, who would
become minister of police in March of that year, both hailed from the
Free State. Motsoeneng and Mbalula’s wife, Nozuko, were both
members of a trust that apparently scored contracts worth about R 38
million to build 450 houses in Virginia and Bloemfontein respectively,
the newspaper reported. But the houses were never finished.
When asked for comment, Motsoeneng simply stated that he had ‘no
interest’ in the issue. Nozuko denied that she had been involved. ‘I’m