Gangster State

Magashule’s office took no such action. Instead, the premier claimed
ignorance of the Treasury report. ‘The Premier is not aware of any
recommendations which were made to the effect that criminal charges
should be instituted against any official following the so-called Letlaka
investigation,’ he wrote in a reply to Roy Jankielsohn, the DA’s leader
in the Free State provincial legislature.^11
Ntsele’s printing and event management contracts were just the start
of his lucrative relationship with Magashule’s government. In 2011 , a
consortium headed by the businessman won a controversial tender to
design and develop websites for various provincial departments,
municipalities and state-owned entities in the Free State. The contract
was reportedly worth a staggering R 120 million.^12 The project was
later suspended amid a public outcry over the exorbitant costs, but
Ntsele and his partners nevertheless bagged at least R 48 million.^13
According to one report, the province spent as much as R 95 million on
the websites, although it is not clear whether this entire amount was
paid to Ntsele’s consortium.^14
Several tech experts have described the project as a gigantic rip-off,
seeing as the web pages were built on simple WordPress templates that
required little design work.^15 There has been no shortage of calls for
the police to probe the deal, but such requests have apparently fallen
on deaf ears. I conducted a small probe of my own, and I did not have
to dig all that deep to unearth some red flags. The consortium that won
the website contract consisted of Cherry Online-Design, of which
Ntsele is the sole director, Ikamva ICT and Jagganaut Trading and
Projects. The latter company’s sole director is Kenneth Thandiwe
Mpembe, who, according to company records, hails from the northern
Free State town of Sasolburg. Mpembe also happens to have business