Gangster State

procurement laws that allows state departments to transfer certain
contracts between them.^7 In Chapter 21 , I explain how this process
works.
In this case, there were serious problems with the manner in which the
transferral had been executed, the Mail & Guardian revealed in a
follow-up report.^8 When government entities or departments share
contracts, the contract values need to be roughly the same. In this
instance, the value of Empire Technology’s contract from the
Department of Energy was almost triple that of the Free State contract.
The scope of work and duration of the respective contracts also differed
too greatly to qualify for a lawful transferral, National Treasury later
warned the Department of Energy in a letter.^9 The AG subsequently
found that Empire Technology’s contract from the energy department
had also been irregular, just like that of its project in the Free State.^10
Empire Technology’s nuclear contract was halted in January 2017 , but
by then the company had already pocketed almost R 100 million.^11 This
was on top of the R 60 million that Empire Technology had secured
from the Free State government shortly before.
According to the Mail & Guardian’s second report, a key player in
the Department of Energy’s efforts to piggyback on Empire
Technology’s Free State contract had been Thabane Zulu, the
department’s director-general. After Empire Technology won the Free
State bid, Zulu approached Yuri Mohan, Shantan Reddy’s partner in
Empire Technology, requesting the company’s ‘approval’ for the
transfer.^12 Empire Technology naturally had no objections. In
December 2015 , Mohan told Zulu that the company would accept the
latest contract.
Zulu’s involvement immediately piqued my interest. As I explain in