Gangster State

The #GuptaLeaks offer further insight into the business dealings
between the newspaper and Magashule’s government. In January
2015 , The New Age boss Nazeem Howa emailed an Excel spreadsheet
to Rajesh ‘Tony’ Gupta and Kopung Ralikontsane, the director-general
in the premier’s office. It was a list of ‘Free State debtors’, presumably
for advertising services. The spreadsheet gives a good idea of which
Free State departments spent the most money on advertisements in the
Guptas’ newspaper. Of the R 5 million owed to The New Age at the
time, Magashule’s office owed almost R 3 million. The Department of
Police, Roads and Transport and the Ngwathe local municipality,
which encompasses Magashule’s hometown of Parys, were among the
other big spenders listed.
Money also flowed from Free State government departments to the
Guptas for other media-related services. The #GuptaLeaks include a
statement from Infinity Media Networks for services provided to the
‘Free State provincial government’ in 2014. It lists four separate
invoices that add up to R 4. 4 million. Infinity was the holding company
of ANN 7 , the twenty-four-hour news channel launched by the Guptas
in 2013. The statement does not say what services were provided; the
only clue is the recipient’s address, Bophelo House in the Bloemfontein
CBD, which, I discovered, is occupied by the Free State Department of
Health.
I asked the department if it had ever been invoiced by Infinity.
According to one of its finance officials, the Free State Department of
Health paid Infinity an amount of R 220 000 in 2014 for ‘media
services’. When I asked the department to elaborate on the nature of
the services provided, a spokesperson said it was for a ‘media breakfast
networking session with provincial service delivery partners ... held in