Gangster State

but there were equally important financial dealings in play. If the
business representatives in Zuma’s shadow state were to continue
benefiting from dodgy government contracts, he needed to stay in
power. His continued rule also ensured that the National Prosecuting
Authority, the Hawks and other supposed bulwarks against the looting
of state resources remained paralysed by the poison of political
interference.
In this toxic environment, the Free State became one of the foremost
sites of capture. For years, Magashule’s own patronage networks had
operated mostly independently from role-players outside the Free State.
But around 2012 , the Guptas and other businesspeople linked to Zuma
began to infiltrate the province in earnest. Magashule evidently had no
qualms about his boss’s friends feasting on Free State contracts along
with his own associates. In fact, synergy and aligned interests were the
order of the day. The nexus between Zuma, Magashule and the Guptas
is a case in point.
One warm Saturday morning in late 2013 , Ace Magashule knocked on
the door of Thabo Manyoni’s Bloemfontein residence.
The arrival of the Free State premier at the home of the city’s mayor
might ordinarily have drawn a fair amount of attention. But these were
not ordinary circumstances. There were no bodyguards, no escort
vehicles and none of the flashing lights that usually announce the
arrival of top-level politicians like Magashule. The only clue that the
visitor was someone important was the black, government-owned
BMW SUV he was driving. The premier seemingly did not want any
witnesses.
Manyoni had no clue why he had been asked to accompany his boss
on a trip, he told me in an interview in mid- 2018. Magashule had