20
Enter Igo
Long before he became involved in Ace Magashule’s circle, Phikolomzi
Ignatius Mpambani was something of a local hero in the northern Free
State town of Welkom.
Mpambani matriculated from St Dominic’s College, a private school,
in 1997.^1 It was a difficult time for Welkom – the gold-mining sector
that had for decades been the lifeblood of the town’s economy was in
serious decline.^2 But Igo, as his friends and family affectionately called
him, was destined to do greater things.
He did well in school. Some of those who knew him described him as
gifted and brilliant. In 1999 , he left the province’s ailing gold-mining
mecca after clinching a scholarship to study at Texas Southern
University in Houston. He first obtained a bachelor’s degree in finance
and economics before completing his MBA in accounting and finance
in 2004.^3
On his return to South Africa in the mid- 2000 s with two sought-after
qualifications, Mpambani got a job as an investment banker at the
Johannesburg office of the international banking group Standard
Chartered.^4 He apparently harboured much bigger ambitions, however,
and was with the bank for less than a year.
During his stint at Standard Chartered, Mpambani put together the
first Beach on the Track New Year’s Eve festival, an annual event held
at Phakisa Freeway, a motor-racing circuit just outside Welkom. At its
pinnacle, the festival attracted thousands of partygoers and boasted
impressive line-ups of local and international DJs and other