Gangster State

province,’ she said. ‘The request first came from someone lower down.
But then Atul Gupta came through to Bloemfontein one day and spoke
to me directly. He asked me to stop writing such stories, but I refused.’
The Guptas then tried to fire her for insubordination. Dlodlo took The
New Age to court and won the case. The High Court in Bloemfontein
ordered the Gupta-owned publication to pay out the remainder of her
salary,^40 after which Dlodlo left the paper for good.
Another former The New Age reporter, who asked to remain
anonymous, claimed that Magashule sometimes directly determined
which stories or events would be included in the publication’s news
diary. ‘I literally had to follow Ace around and create positive coverage
on him,’ this journalist told me. ‘For instance, when he opened houses
as part of Operation Hlasela, I needed to be there. He sometimes
phoned me directly to tell me where I had to be.’
Magashule’s influence apparently also extended to the public
broadcaster. Thuso Motaung, a presenter at the SABC’s Lesedi FM
radio station, which reaches over three million listeners, is said to have
been close to Magashule. According to my sources, Motaung often
praised the former premier on air. As we will see in Chapter 21 ,
Motaung travelled to Cuba with Magashule in early 2015.
One former SABC reporter claimed that Magashule also influenced
the public broadcaster’s news diary for the region. Magashule allegedly
instructed then SABC COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng to make a key
appointment at the SABC’s regional office in the Free State. The source
claimed the appointee ensured that Magashule received very good
coverage. ‘On some days we had environmental issues or other stories
on our diary, but, after Ace or one of his MECs called, the whole diary
would change. We then instead had to run after the politicians and