housing-related projects, the national government would not be able to
reapportion large chunks of the province’s housing budget.
The FSHS’s annual reports contain clues as to how the alleged plan
was rolled out. In the 2012 / 13 financial year, the department
transferred over R 200 million of its unspent grant money to the
Housing Development Agency, the Social Housing Regulatory
Authority and two private funds for housing-related projects.^14 In other
words, instead of forfeiting its unspent housing grant to national
government, the department chose to transfer the monies to third
parties. These entities were supposed to use this money for projects
related to housing. The total amount the FSHS transferred to third-
party entities more than tripled to R 620 million in the following
financial year.^15 This time, some of the largest transfers were made to
entities whose principals and other officials were said to be close to
Magashule. Bloem Water, for instance, received R 230 million to
‘expedite the delivery of water and sanitation services to [housing]
beneficiaries within [the] Free State’.^16 The chair of Bloem Water,
Bernard Tefetso Phitsane, is a former business partner of Magashule
and his son Tshepiso.^17
Phitsane also sat on the board of the Free State Development
Corporation, along with two other known Magashule associates: Thoko
Malembe’s business partner Hantsi Matseke, who was appointed FDC
board chair in 2012 ;^18 and Magashule’s former business partner
Blacky Seoe. At the end of 2013 , Ikhraam Osman became the entity’s
new CEO. Osman had worked under Magashule when the latter was
still an MEC. In fact, sources told me that Osman was among the five
officials at Magashule’s Department of Economic Affairs and Tourism
who were suspended in 1996 by then premier Mosiuoa Lekota over
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