Amid the growing tension between the partners, Mpambani continued
making regular cash runs to the Free State. On 17 August, he withdrew
R 100 000 from an FNB ATM a few kilometres away from where
Magashule was attending an executive council meeting. He was back
in Bloemfontein three weeks later. This time, he withdrew R 150 000
from 605 Consulting’s account at the Brandwag ATM near Free State
House. According to the premier’s official diary, Magashule returned to
Bloemfontein later that day after a meeting in KwaZulu-Natal.
On 2 December, Mpambani withdrew R 150 000 from an ATM in
Welkom, MEC Leeto’s hometown. By that time, Magashule was in
Hong Kong, having flown there from O.R. Tambo International Airport
in late November. In the week after the premier’s departure, Mpambani
and his wife also flew to Hong Kong. There is nothing in the IgoFiles
to suggest that Magashule and Mpambani spent time together in the
Far East, as they had done in Cuba nearly two years before, but the
timing of their respective trips is curious.
With 2016 nearly at its end and the final payment from the FSHS in
the bag, Mpambani’s financial activities linked to the asbestos auditing
deal seemingly took a break. It is worth reviewing how Mpambani
spent some of this money.
In the preceding two years, the FSHS had transferred R 230 million in
a series of staggered payments to the Blackhead–Diamond Hill joint
account. Financial records from the IgoFiles and related documents
suggested the joint venture and some of its partners, including
Mastertrade, had earned more than R 200 million in clean profit from
the project. But Mpambani’s partner was adamant that the asbestos
audit did not amount to a huge rip-off. He refused, however, to tell me
how much profit the joint venture had bagged. ‘The conclusions you
nora
(Nora)
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