Gangster State

on the email.
Ngomane responded to Kay as follows: ‘We do not have the itinerary,
at the time of departure the itinerary within India was not available
from the Embassy.’ Tshepiso forwarded this response to Tony Gupta.
Correspondence in the #GuptaLeaks shows that Tshepiso was not the
only one carrying messages between Magashule and the Guptas. A day
before the general election in May 2014 , Mosidi Motsemme sent
Tshepiso an email with a list of names and cellphone numbers for
hundreds of ‘FS ANC party agents’. ‘It will be appreciated if air time
amounting to R 120 per person could be loaded today, 06 may 2014 ,’
Motsemme wrote, adding that the request was ‘as per directive of the
FS ANC chairperson’. At the time, Magashule was still chair. The
email was also forwarded to Kabelo Nthongoa, who then passed it on
to Tony Gupta.
One media report on this exchange referred to Motsemme as ‘an
employee at the Free State provincial legislature’.^14 While correct, it is
not the full picture. As previously mentioned, Motsemme, who is
described as Magashule’s ‘Bloemfontein wife’ in ANC circles, is the
mother of two of his children. Magashule is also linked to an upmarket
property in Bloemfontein’s Woodlands estate owned by Motsemme. In
2015 , Volksblad reported that the structure was allegedly in breach of
building regulations.^15 The property is registered in Motsemme’s name,
but Magashule for some reason told the newspaper that he was the
owner and that he had funded it through a bank loan.^16
Meanwhile, none of the media reports gave further details about
Nthongoa, the person who forwarded the ‘directive’ regarding the
airtime to Tony Gupta. Some digging revealed that she is Magashule’s
daughter-in-law, having married Tshepiso in 2014. According to