Moroadi Cholota once again emailed Mpambani. ‘Good day. Kindly
find the below details as discussed telephonically,’ she wrote, including
the bank details for Astra Travel, a travel agency in Bloemfontein. Her
timing was impeccable. Just forty minutes after she sent the email, the
FSHS transferred R 10 million into the Blackhead–Diamond Hill joint
account. This was the sixth payment for the asbestos audit.
The fact that Magashule’s personal assistant emailed Mpambani
during the exact time frame in which the FSHS paid yet another
instalment to Blackhead–Diamond Hill resonates with what I was told
by several of the former premier’s erstwhile associates and allies. ‘Ace
kept tabs on all the large and medium-sized payments made by
municipalities and provincial departments. He knew exactly when most
companies were due to receive money from his government, and he
would then very quickly collect his share once the payment had been
made,’ a former MEC in one of Magashule’s earlier executive councils
told me.
The following day, Cholota sent Mpambani an invoice for R 250 000
from Astra Travel for the ‘Cuba delegation’. It was for the group’s
accommodation abroad. ‘Kindly find the attached invoice as discussed.
Hope you will find it in order,’ she wrote. In this instance, by following
the money trail it is possible to see exactly how Mpambani attended to
this political request with the proceeds of the asbestos auditing
contract. Through a series of complex transactions, the businessman
moved the FSHS bounty around in a manner that has all the hallmarks
of a classic money-laundering operation.
When the sixth instalment of R 10 million landed in Blackhead–
Diamond Hill’s account, Mpambani immediately transferred about R 5
million to Blackhead Consulting. He also put R 600 000 into his private
nora
(Nora)
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