A R255m Free State Government deal that dates back to 2014 bears the fingerprints of then Free State Premier and current ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule. A new proclamation signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa means the Special Investigating Unit will finally start to follow the cash flows of this contentious contract. This may turn out to be a significant development in the ongoing tussle for control between the governing party’s two foremost power blocs, suggests a Daily Maverick report. The order allows the SIU to probe allegations of ‘unlawful or improper conduct’ in relation to the R255m contract the Free State Department of Human Settlements (FSHS) dished out in 2014 for the audit and assessment of asbestos roofs in the province. A joint venture (JV) between the companies Blackhead Consulting and Diamond Hill Trading 71 clinched the deal without a tender process and without having been registered as a JV. According to the proclamation, the SIU needs to determine if ‘employees or officials of the department, the applicable service providers, or any other person or entity’ were guilty of procurement irregularities or financial misconduct in relation to the large contract.

Igo Mpambani, Diamond Hill’s late director, was gunned down in Sandton in 2017. Leaked e-mails and documents from his businesses implicate Magashule in some of his dealings, including the asbestos audit, says the DM. In January 2015, Mpambani accompanied Magashule and other government officials on a trip to Cuba, from where the businessman sent the JV’s first invoices to FSHS officials. He also created a ‘cost of business’ spreadsheet, according to which a certain ‘AM’ was due to receive a R10m cut from the contract. The DM notes that should the SIU implicate the ANC secretary-general in any such wrongdoing, Ramaphosa would have no choice but to enforce the unit’s recommended interventions, even if said recommendations include something as drastic as criminal prosecution.