from Ilanga Estate, an upmarket events venue outside Bloemfontein, in
May 2012. The guest speaker was President Jacob Zuma.
After that, the business breakfast circus rolled into the Free State at
least once a year. In December 2013 , the event was held at the Barnard
Molokoane High School in Magashule’s hometown of Parys, according
to his official diary. Magashule would use these briefings to ‘unpack’
his State of the Province addresses.^29
In August 2015 , public enterprises minister Lynne Brown installed
Hantsi Matseke at the state-owned diamond company Alexkor as its
new chairperson. A #GuptaLeaks report later revealed links between
known Gupta associates and a company that had been appointed by
Alexkor to market its diamonds.^30 The #GuptaLeaks also revealed that
the powerful family once wanted Matseke to be appointed to the board
of the South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL).^31 As
mentioned previously, Matseke is one of Magashule’s oldest friends
from Parys. She is also in business with Magashule’s daughter Thoko,
and her company Friedshelf 863 benefited from the Free State housing
saga of 2010. ‘I have no relationship, whether personal or business,
with any member of the Gupta family,’ Matseke told me. She said her
CV was in the public domain and was therefore accessible to anyone.
‘Accordingly, I have no control over comments made by third parties,
including the Gupta family, about my suitability for positions.’
In early 2018 , before her own sacking as minister of public enterprises
and in an apparent last-ditch effort to ensure some continuance of the
Gupta capture project in the Ramaphosa era, Lynne Brown tried to
have Playfair Morule appointed as Eskom’s new chairperson.^32 As
previously mentioned, Morule, South Africa’s former high
commissioner to India, is a long-serving Magashule ally. His wife,
nora
(Nora)
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