Magashule introduced the Chinese businessman, whom he referred to
as Mr Lee, as the property developer who had been appointed by
government to build houses at Vogelfontein for Selahliwe’s shack
dwellers.
Mr Lee was in fact Jianliang Li, a Chinese–South African
businessman based in Johannesburg. A month after meeting with
Magashule at Vogelfontein, Li co-founded a company called Unital
Holdings. His co-director was none other than Thoko Malembe.
Unital’s company records contain an interesting piece of information:
for her residential address, Thoko listed the Gupta-owned property in
Saxonwold where Tshepiso Magashule had lived and where her father
sometimes met with contacts. Registration documents submitted by
Unital to the National Home Builders Registration Council confirm that
Thoko was also a shareholder in the company. She owned 30 per cent,
while Li held the remaining stake.
Magashule and his allies in government apparently tried their best to
conceal the fact that his daughter would benefit from the Vogelfontein
contract. In a presentation on the Free State’s housing projects, human
settlements HOD Tim Mokhesi listed Unital as ‘ 100 % Chinese-owned’.
Magashule and some MECs returned to Vogelfontein in November
2013 to formally launch the RDP project with a small sod-turning
ceremony. The Eastern Free State Express covered the event. ‘We
don’t want to build a “kasi” township here – we want to build a human
settlement,’ Magashule told the local newspaper. ‘We should have
schools, recreational places, community halls and many others.’^2 The
Selahliwe community was elated.
In the same month, the FSHS awarded a contract worth almost R 64
million to Unital to build 500 RDP houses. There was no tender
nora
(Nora)
#1