Tankiso, was among the band of connected businesspeople who
secured lucrative housing contracts during Magashule’s reign as
premier.
There is overwhelming evidence that Magashule, his administration,
his family and some of his closest friends formed key cogs in the
Guptas’ state-capture machinery. Under his watch as premier, the Free
State pumped almost R 440 million into the Guptas’ coffers through the
Vrede dairy farm deal, the controversial mobile clinics and payments to
the family’s media entities.
The Guptas plundered his home province, and it is inconceivable that
Magashule played no part in it. After all, he was ‘advised’ on the Vrede
dairy project by Ashok Narayan, one of the family’s most trusted
lieutenants.^33 And he personally met with The New Age bosses when
the Free State was committing to ever-larger subscriptions of the
newspaper. He allegedly took Mangaung’s mayor and at least one
MEC to Saxonwold for clandestine meetings with Atul Gupta. His son
Tshepiso lives in a house owned by the Guptas and located a stone’s
throw from the former shadow state’s main seat of power, a property
that Magashule himself used as his Johannesburg base on at least one
occasion. Furthermore, his son, his daughter-in-law and the mother of
his children served as conduits for the flow of information to and from
his shady friends in Saxonwold.
And finally, some of the most prominent figures in the Guptas’
shadow state hailed from the Free State. Some of these people first
served in Magashule’s provincial government. Others were in his inner
circle years before the Guptas required their help.
In light of all this, if one had to identify the foremost enabler of the
Guptas’ dodgy dealings in South Africa, it would be difficult to choose
nora
(Nora)
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