Gangster State

companies) that would benefit from the project.
But before that could happen, Mpambani first had to deliver design
reports for the proposed water and sewerage infrastructure. Seeing as
neither he nor his wife were engineers, they subcontracted a string of
professional firms and qualified people. As always, such expenses
would only constitute a fraction of 605 Consulting’s revenue, and there
would be plenty of fat left over to pass around.
In May 2017 , Mpambani submitted preliminary infrastructure design
reports for Tumahole and other proposed residential developments in
Heilbron and Sasolburg. He also sent off a few invoices for the reports,
which included 605 Consulting’s ‘inception’ fees. In all, the FSHS now
owed Mpambani a fresh R 11 million. And this was only the first round
of invoices. By May 2018 , 605 Consulting had reaped more than R 40
million from the department, according to the housing subsidy system
database and related documents.
Mpambani sent these preliminary reports and invoices to the private
Gmail account of Freddy Tokwe, an FSHS staffer said to be close to
Magashule and Mokhesi. The four preliminary reports looked a lot like
copy-and-paste jobs. But that was not the biggest problem. The reports
contained the details of the two ‘civil engineers’ who had been
subcontracted to respectively author and review the work. I looked up
their names at the Engineering Council of South Africa. Contrary to
what was claimed in the reports, neither was a civil engineer: the
author was registered as a professional engineering technologist, and
the reviewer as a candidate engineering technician.
Getting the first R 11 million payment from the FSHS was not all
smooth sailing. On Tuesday 20 June, the day he died, Mpambani got
an email from a senior official in the FSHS financial department. ‘The