Gangster State

between the Zumas and the Myenis. Thalente once submitted a
‘change of bank details’ form to the South African Revenue Service
(SARS). One section of the form required the ‘personal details of
person providing proof of residential address’. Myeni provided the
name and contact details of Duduzile Zuma, Duduzane Zuma’s twin.
Next to ‘relationship to taxpayer’, Myeni wrote ‘cousin’.
When I first researched Myeni’s involvement in the PRASA deal,
sources claimed he was fronting for Zuma. The latest documents I
obtained suggest he was using some of his income from ‘consulting’
work – possibly including his payments from VNA – for the benefit of
Zuma’s family. A bill for legal work done for Duduzile by a
Johannesburg law firm was addressed to and apparently paid by Myeni
in early 2016 , according to the documents.
VNA’s R 2 -million payment to Premier Attraction at the time of the
Vrede housing project, coupled with Myeni’s apparent ties to Zuma’s
family, suggested my sources might have been onto something. Could
taxpayers’ money have been extracted from the Free State’s coffers in
order to benefit the then president?
I finally confronted Narsai with Premier Attraction’s invoice in early
2019. He strongly denied that VNA had channelled a ‘thank-you fee’ to
Zuma, or that his firm had paid any politically exposed persons in
relation to the Vrede project or any other projects. He admitted that
VNA had paid Premier Attraction R 2 million, but he said it had been
for ‘consulting services’ related to a construction project in Bethal in
Mpumalanga. Myeni’s company apparently acted as the ‘development
manager’. ‘Premier Attraction 1016 and by virtue Thalente Myeni was
never involved in the Vrede ABT project,’ Narsai said.
As mentioned earlier, Narsai initially claimed VNA had not done any