Gangster State

officials in every sphere of government. From mayors, municipal
managers and directors at municipalities to MECs, heads of
department and directors at provincial departments, Magashule
apparently had the final say when positions with even the faintest
financial function needed to be filled.
A growing number of former and current political insiders are now
willing to talk about Magashule’s ruthless rule in his home province,
but their claims are not new. As far back as 2013 , Mpho Ramakatsa,
one of the few ANC members who dared challenge the Magashule
bloc’s political hegemony, warned about the then premier’s behaviour.
‘There is no single municipality in the Free State that is independent of
Magashule’s influence,’ Ramakatsa told the Mail & Guardian in May
that year. ‘He appoints everybody from heads of department to a
cleaner. Those that do not toe the line are taken out [fired]. He has also
centralised procurement in his office precisely to control the economy
of the Free State. This makes him indispensable to a lot of people.’^4
By all accounts, Magashule enforced a pervasive and smothering
degree of authority over government affairs. To maintain his alleged
capture of the provincial government, he needed to remain equally
powerful in his guise as leader of the ANC in the Free State. He clung
to the position of provincial chairperson for a record number of years,
and seemed proud to be known as the ANC’s ‘longest-serving
provincial chairman’.^5 He ascribed his prolonged occupation of the
ANC’s top spot in the province to the broad support the party’s
branches supposedly lavished upon him. ‘I will always respect the
branches of the ANC. I have never imposed myself as a leader. The
branches have always nominated me. I will be elected unopposed at the
provincial conference next month,’ a confident Magashule told the