Gangster State

Public Service Act and the Public Finance Management Act. He drew
Malakoane’s ire when he acted swiftly to suspend four of the
department’s chief directors over financial irregularities.^8 The
suspended officials were later reinstated by a court order. At the time,
Malakoane had claimed that Ngombane was undermining his
authority.^9 ‘He had this attitude of “we are here to work”,’ explained
Nokwanda. ‘It was not necessarily about cracking down on corruption,
but about making sure we give the people what the ANC said it would
give people.’
Ngombane’s reputation as someone who fought maladministration
would continue to swell after Beatrice Marshoff replaced Direko as
premier in early 2004. In August of that year, he was appointed head of
a newly formed policy coordination unit in the premier’s office. It was
a powerful position, seeing as he would have Marshoff’s ear in matters
involving governance and the financial affairs of the province’s
departments and entities. The appointment was bound to revive the
simmering discord between the opposing political camps. Those who
had previously blamed Ngombane’s ILC for influencing Direko’s
decision to appoint MECs from the southern faction weren’t happy.
They saw it as an attempt by Marshoff to promote the man who paved
the way for her to become premier. More than ever, Marshoff and
Ngombane were viewed as close allies.
Nokwanda, who had been working in Marshoff’s office before her
husband’s arrival, said one of the most drastic early changes that he
intended to implement was to centralise decisions around the spending
of billions of rands of government funds in his unit’s office. For
instance, Ngombane wanted his unit to have control over the huge
chunks of money allocated to municipalities from the national