21
Plunder plot
Ace Magashule and six of his closest associates from the Free State
landed in Havana, Cuba, just before 1 p.m. on Wednesday 28 January
2015. With the final leg of their draining journey from Johannesburg
now over, the group no doubt looked forward to some downtime in the
Cuban capital.
Accompanying the Free State premier were businessman Tlale
Mokgadi, Lesedi FM presenter Thuso Motaung, Free State ANC
secretary William Bulwane, provincial MEC for police, roads and
transport Sam Mashinini, and two other government officials.
According to an official government briefing document, they formed
part of a forty-nine-person delegation that consisted of provincial
government officials, the mayors of select Free State towns, MECs and
businesspeople.^1 The same document outlined the purposes of the trip,
which included an opportunity to ‘strengthen relations with [Cuba’s]
Matanzas Province’, ‘political education’, a ‘visit to our [South African
medical] students’ and a ‘tour of Cuba’. The trip lasted a total of two
weeks and was funded by taxpayers.
In keeping with the ruling ANC’s enduring inability to separate state
and party functions, the aforementioned briefing document highlighted
elements of that year’s ANC January 8 th Statement as further
justification for the trip. These included the ANC’s decision to
‘consolidate and strengthen existing party-to-party relations with like-
minded sister parties all over the world’, and ‘solidarity with Palestine;
Western Sahara and Cuba’.