Gangster State

FSHS transferred money into the Blackhead–Diamond Hill account
than Mpambani would receive requests from Magashule’s aides or
people linked to politicians like Leeto. He would then move his share of
the money into his own company accounts, from where he would make
all manner of payments, including settling the requests. Mpambani also
started to withdraw ever-larger amounts of cash before or during his
trips to Bloemfontein.
The IgoFiles, Magashule’s diary and other records allowed me to
identify a sequence of events that show how Mpambani channelled
even more of the money from the asbestos auditing contract into
political projects. On Tuesday 19 January 2016 , Magashule met with
President Jacob Zuma at the latter’s Mahlamba Ndlopfu residence in
Pretoria. That same day, ANC spokesperson in the Free State Thabo
Meeko tweeted: ‘ANC Free State to convene the mother of all marches
in defence of President Zuma, on 06 Feb 2016. In Bloem. Details to
follow.’
Zuma was in the middle of yet another political storm after his shock
appointment, and subsequent reversal, of Des van Rooyen as finance
minister a month before. His relationship with the Guptas was also
keeping him in the firing line and he needed all the support he could
get. The march was scheduled for the week after the FSHS made its
sixth payment for the asbestos audit, and Mpambani’s money once
again came in handy. On Wednesday 3 February, he withdrew half a
million rand in cash from the FNB branch in the Sandton City
shopping mall. He then drove to the Free State, swiping one of his
bank cards at the Grasmere and Vaal toll plazas before later buying
petrol at the Engen 1 -Stop on the N 1 outside Bloemfontein.
While we do not know for sure what the R 500 000 was for, the