Gangster State

Part VII, he played a key role in another controversial contract
transferral involving a R 255 -million asbestos audit from the Free State
Department of Human Settlements. Zulu was director-general of the
national Department of Human Settlements before being moved to
energy.
Regarding Empire Technology’s two successive IT contracts, the
circumstances and sequence of events were curious. Without the Free
State contract, the company would not have been able to clinch the
even larger national contract, as orchestrated by Zulu. Why didn’t the
Department of Energy run its own tender process? And how did Zulu
find out about Empire Technology’s contract from the Free State
Provincial Treasury in the first place?
I put these questions to Zulu and the Department of Energy, but did
not get much of an answer. ‘The matter of Empire Technology is under
investigation by the Office of the Public Protector,’ the energy
department informed me. ‘Therefore, it is the Department’s view to
allow the Public Protector to conclude her investigation without
prejudicing any infor​mation under investigation.’
I could not help but wonder whether the Reddy family’s ties to
Magashule and two of his children somehow played a role in the first
of the two contracts awarded to Empire Technology, namely the R 60 -
million contract from the Free State Provincial Treasury. When I asked
the treasury if this was the case, the answer was a simple ‘no’. Empire
Technology said it was insulted by the suggestion. ‘We are not aware of
any role that the prem​ier played in the award[ing] of this contract,’
Mohan told me. ‘We deny the offensive allegation that the alleged
friendship [between Vivian Reddy and Ace Magashule] influenced
[our] business success in the Free State.’