Gangster State

angry about was the shortage of decent housing in their area.^28
In July, police were again called in to disperse angry protesters, this
time in the eastern Free State township of Tshiame. They too were
angry about government’s failure to deliver low-cost housing.^29 And in
Bethulie, frustrated residents showed a Sowetan reporter a site where a
contractor had left behind houses without roofs, windows or doors.^30
In early 2012 , Magashule again subjected his executive council to a
round of musical chairs. The MEC for economic development, Mxolisi
Dukwana, a former Magashule ally, had to go. Dukwana had
abandoned the Magashule fold and planned to challenge him for the
position of provincial chair as a member of the so-called Regime
Change group.^31 Led by Mpho Ramakatsa, the Regime Change faction
later protested Magashule’s re-election as ANC provincial chair by
taking the matter to the courts.^32
Magashule duly fired Dukwana and replaced him with Mamiki
Qabathe.^33 The vacant job at human settlements was then given to Olly
Mlamleli, who would remain in that position until she became mayor
of Mangaung in late 2016. Mlamleli had been close to Magashule since
at least 2008. She had worked for him when he was an MEC in
Beatrice Marshoff’s administration.^34
The department also got a new HOD in the form of Nthimotse ‘Tim’
Mokhesi, a former senior official in the Maluti-a-Phofung local
municipality in the eastern Free State. Mokhesi served on the board of
directors of Maluti-a-Phofung’s water utility, where he rubbed
shoulders with fellow director Glen Netshivhodza,^35 a businessman
from Parys and a close confidant of Magashule. Two of Netshivhodza’s
companies were among the scores of contractors who benefited from
the big RDP splurge of 2010.