Gangster State

the ‘design and implementation of water and sewer networks in various
Districts in the Free State over a period of three ( 3 ) years’.^1 This time,
Mpambani would use 605 Consulting Solutions to tap into the latest
revenue stream, with his wife, Michelle, as his co-director.
The entire process was a farce. By the time the call for bids closed in
July 2016 , 605 Consulting was not even registered with the
Construction Industry Development Board, a prerequisite for securing
construction contracts from government. This happened only in
November of that year, and Mpambani’s company obtained the lowest
possible grading. With a CIDB score of just 1 , 605 Consulting was
woefully underqualified for the multimillion-rand infrastructure design
work. No doubt aware of its limitations, 605 Consulting made a
presentation to the FSHS in late August. It vowed to identify specific
parts of the project that would be ‘subcontracted to local emerging
contractors’.^2
In January 2017 , the department informed 605 Consulting that it had
been chosen for the ‘design and supervision’ of water and sewerage
infrastructure projects in several municipalities in the northern Free
State, including Tumahole, where Magashule grew up. The letter,
signed by HOD Tim Mokhesi, curiously swopped ‘implementation’, as
stipulated in the request for proposals, with ‘supervision’. The FSHS
no doubt knew that 605 Consulting was by no means capable of
implementing large water and sewer networks. The promise to rope in
‘emerging contractors’ became a fixed requirement of the deal. ‘A 30 %
sub-consulting obligation will apply to this appointment and is to be
awarded to an emerging consulting engineering firm agreed upon by
the department,’ read the letter signed by Mokhesi. In other words, the
HOD, or whoever pulled his strings, could nominate the company (or