17

The R9-million freebie

Since coming to power, the ANC has consistently promised to tackle
South Africa’s alarmingly high unemployment rate. President Cyril
Ramaphosa renewed the ANC’s vows regarding job creation at the
party’s 2019 election manifesto launch in Durban. Considering some of
the characters who shared the stage with him at this event, the
declaration was a farce. Not only has the ANC government
continuously failed to make meaningful inroads into reducing
unemployment, but some of its top leaders have actively destroyed
existing jobs through their questionable conduct.
Secretary-general Ace Magashule is one such leader. As premier of the
Free State, Magashule seemingly had a hand in ensuring that the Free
State Development Corporation effectively sold his daughter, Thoko
Malembe, a property that was once the site of a thriving business. In
the process, Thoko pocketed R 8. 9 million. The deal ultimately
destroyed the business and cost its employees their jobs and
livelihoods.
Thoko has been at the centre of some of the most egregious examples
of Magashule’s alleged state-capture schemes. As mentioned in
Chapter 3 , she only met her father relatively late in life. Her mother
had followed Magashule into exile in Tanzania, where she gave birth in
1990. Magashule later returned to South Africa without them and they
apparently lost touch. Thoko was reunited with her biological father in
2011. Ironically, it was Ramaphosa who played a key role in getting
them back together. When I first started looking into Thoko’s business