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An arrest warrant has been issued for ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule in connection with the asbestos audit contract worth 255 million rand in the Free State. Magashule is expected to appear in court this week. Scorpio brings you this exclusive.
ANC Secretary General and former Free State Prime Minister Ace Magashule will be arrested and charged for his alleged role in the Free State asbestos audit contract worth 255 million rand.
Scorpio may reveal that an arrest warrant has been issued for Magashule and that he will face various charges related to corruption in connection with one of the most controversial contracts that the provincial government of the Free State awarded during his time as prime minister.
A joint venture between businessman Edwin Sodi’s Blackhead Consulting and late Igo Mpambani’s Diamond Hill Trading 74 secured the lucrative Free State Department of Human Settlements (FSHS) asbestos auditing contract in 2014. Sodi and other entrepreneurs linked to the deal have already been arrested and charged, along with several former government officials.
Scorpio understands that Magashule will be making her first appearance in Bloemfontein Superior Court this week and that she has been given the opportunity to voluntarily present herself to the authorities.
We have learned that he faces multiple charges of alleged transgressions under the Law for the Prevention and Combat of Corrupt Activities (Precca), among other laws related to corruption.
Some of these charges are understood to relate to payments made to certain third parties with the proceeds of the contract, allegedly at the direction of Magashule.
Magashule’s supposed role in the asbestos saga was first exposed in this journalist’s book, Gangster status.
It was revealed that the then Magashule PA Moroadi Cholota had instructed Mpambani to make payments to third parties and that this was apparently done on behalf of his former boss.
In August 2015, for example, Mpambani used part of the proceeds from the asbestos contract to pay student fees for the daughter of then-acting Superior Court Judge Refiloe Mokoena. His daughter had been studying at a university in the United States.
The leaked emails and documents showed that the funding request was first directed to Magashule, whose AP, Cholota, then sent the funding request to Mpambani.
Cholota sent his email to Mpambani just one day after the Blackhead Consulting-Diamond Hill joint venture received a R36.5 million quota from the province’s human settlements department. A few days later, Mpambani transferred around R51,000 to the American university.
An earlier email from Cholota to Mpambani also implicates Magashule.
“After the conversation with Ipeleng Morake [another former staffer in Magashule’s office], Premier requested that he pay the full amount of R470,000 and the remaining amount of R30,000 to one of the SRC Presidents[s] in Cuba, ”Cholota wrote to Mpambani in May 2015.
The decision to charge Magashule is a breakthrough.
Daily Maverick and Scorpio will update our reports on the issue once we get more details. We will include comments from Magashule or their legal representatives should they wish to make a statement. DM
