Gangster State

draw about the amount of profit are incorrect and it is not incumbent
on the JV to answer questions about its profitability. The assumption
that the JV “milked” the taxpayer is wrong and is rejected,’ Edwin Sodi
said through his lawyers. Mokhesi also denied that the FSHS had
massively overpaid Blackhead–Diamond Hill. ‘We are not sure about
your understanding of the scope and the nature of the work that was
done on this issue,’ said the HOD.
However, Mpambani’s management of the joint-venture account
raised too many red flags to ignore. It was clear that he had funnelled
much of the huge payments from the FSHS through a complex web of
bank accounts opened in his name or in those of his companies. In the
process, he bought a small fleet of luxury cars worth millions of rands.
He spent even more on upmarket properties bought without bank
loans. And he paid tens of millions of rands to unknown accounts
belonging to third parties, masking the transfers as ‘engineering
services’ and ‘consulting’ fees. The timing and value of these payments
frequently mirrored the amounts Mpambani and Sodi had seemingly
agreed to pay people and companies listed in their ‘Free State
Asbestos’ Excel spreadsheet.
That Magashule’s fingerprints were on the deal seems undeniable. In
late 2014 , when FSHS staffers queried the contract, they were told that
Magashule was behind it. When the premier travelled to Cuba in early
2015 , Mpambani was right by his side. As we have seen, Mpambani
submitted the first invoices to the FSHS during this trip. Later,
throughout 2015 and 2016 , Mpambani complied with requests from
Magashule’s office to settle invoices for, among others, the ‘Cuban 19 ’,
student fees and Refiloe Mokoena’s daughter’s college tuition. All of
this amounted to about R 1 million.