Gangster State

worth R 51 million.
The spreadsheet, on face value, provides rare insight into how corrupt
government deals involving millions of rands are put together. Under
the heading ‘cost of business’, the document lists several names, many
of them abbreviated, with the amounts that each was due to receive. A
certain ‘AM’, for instance, was to be paid R 10 million. ‘TZ’ would
receive R 10 million, while ‘TM’ would receive R 5 million. ‘JT’ was to
get R 3 million, ‘MEC’ R 2. 5 million and ‘OM’ R 1 million. Those
unabbreviated included a company called Mastertrade (to be paid just
over R 44 million) and an individual called Diedricks (R 1 million). The
‘total cost of business’, reflected on the spreadsheet, amounted to
R 82. 6 million. The ‘project value’ of R 255 million minus this ‘total
cost of business’ left an amount of R 172. 4 million. This was the profit
Blackhead and Diamond Hill would split after settling their expenses –
R 86. 2 million in pure profit each. According to the spreadsheet, the
third parties were set to receive their ‘fees’ in staggered tranches
coinciding with payments received from the FSHS in the Blackhead–
Diamond Hill joint FNB account. Mpambani’s Diamond Hill would be
responsible for making most of the payments to third parties, according
to the spreadsheet. This may explain why Mpambani did not pay
Sodi’s company exactly half of each of the first three payments from
the FSHS, seeing as he would have needed to settle the third parties’
claims first.
I showed the document to a source who had been privy to certain
aspects of the asbestos auditing scheme. Working through the
spreadsheet, he suggested the initials ‘AM’ stood for Ace Magashule.
The source thought that ‘MEC’ could be Mathabo Leeto, the former
mayor of Matjhabeng and current Free State MEC for sport, arts,