Gangster State

had at some point considered installing sewerage and water pipes. One
beneficiary who had decided to move into his new home regardless told
me it had not been built well. ‘When it rains, it leaks into my house,’ he
said. ‘Some of us go up a nearby hill to relieve ourselves because there
aren’t any working toilets.’
The lack of basic services was not merely the result of bad project
management. Further investigation revealed that Magashule’s apparent
meddling was the root cause of the terrible conditions in which the
people of Vogelfontein now lived. Long before Unital arrived on the
scene, the Dihlabeng local municipality appointed a firm from Gauteng
to oversee a mixed housing development at Vogelfontein. The company,
Emendo Project Managers and Planners, was appointed as a turnkey
developer, which meant it was tasked with providing bulk services and
other infrastructure along with new houses. Emendo was making good
progress with some of the work. It had provided water and sewerage to
some of the sites, and was in the process of constructing a sewage
pump station.
In late 2013 , a few months after Magashule met with Jianliang Li at
Vogelfontein, one of Emendo’s subcontractors, Dam Civils, which had
started on the design and construction of the new neighbourhood’s
road network, was suddenly halted in its tracks. Busa Molatseli,
Dihlabeng’s municipal manager, informed Emendo and Dam Civils
that the local council could not approve their plans for the roads and
houses. In fact, Emendo was to abandon all its activities at
Vogelfontein. Baffled by the municipality’s sudden change of heart, one
of Emendo’s directors asked to meet with Molatseli. During the
meeting, it became clear who was behind the municipality’s
unwillingness to cooperate with the turnkey developer. ‘[Dihlabeng