Gangster State

municipality’s] justification for its action was that ... the honourable
Ace Magashule had instructed it to no longer cooperate with the
defendant (Emendo) on the project,’ read court papers later filed by
Emendo in an ongoing legal battle over the matter.
Sources who were involved in the saga told me that, in 2014 ,
Magashule’s office began to strong-arm the municipality into cutting
ties with Emendo, signed agreements notwithstanding. These sources
were able to provide me with specific details about Magashule’s
meddling, including the dates, venues and attendees of meetings in
which the matter was discussed. At one meeting, Magashule told the
MEC for human settlements, Olly Mlamleli, the director-general in the
Office of the Premier, Kopung Ralikontsane, and the HOD in the Free
State Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs,
Mokete Duma, that Dihlabeng’s contract with Emendo was unlawful
and needed to be terminated.
When I first reported on this issue in early 2018 , Magashule’s office
admitted to being involved in the Vogelfontein affair. It said it had
advised the Dihlabeng municipality to boot Emendo off the project. ‘It
appeared that the contracts concluded with Emendo were irregular, and
as such, it should be reviewed and set aside by a competent court,’ I
was told. ‘The office of the premier did not instruct the municipality,
but gave legal advice.’ This seemed a bit strange. At the time, almost
90 per cent of the Free State’s municipalities were guilty of irregular
expenditure, according to an auditor-general’s report.^5 Why was
Magashule seemingly taking a special interest in this particular
contract?
Over the next few years, the provincial government and the Dihlabeng
municipality worked together to get rid of the incumbent developer.