11
Regime unchanged
As premier of the Free State, Ace Magashule presided over the
provincial government’s financial affairs with a despot’s flair for
centralisation. Former and current MECs, erstwhile confidants, senior
and mid-level officials, and businesspeople in the province all attest to
a frightening executive environment in which ‘the fourth floor’, a
reference to the premier’s office, controlled every stream, brook and
tributary of the Free State’s cash flows. ‘There wasn’t a contract in the
Free State that Ace didn’t know about. Whether it was for supplying
toilet paper to municipalities or building roads for the province, he had
a say in which contractors got the work,’ claimed one of Magashule’s
closest former allies.
In some instances, the premier’s office sought to formalise its iron grip
on pockets of the province’s budget, with disastrous effect. A plan
initiated in 2010 to consolidate the Free State’s entire government
advertising spend in Magashule’s office drew the ire of National
Treasury and culminated in a forensic report that recommended
criminal investigations (see Chapter 12 ).^1
Operation Hlasela is another case in point. Magashule seemingly used
his so-called development programme to impose himself on
procurement decisions at the Free State Department of Human
Settlements. And Operation Hlasela ensnared the expenditure policies
at the province’s other big spenders, including the departments of
public works,^2 and police, roads and transport.^3 As we have seen, the
former premier took a hands-on approach to the appointment of key