Forget Jooste's R100bn - Molefe is the real financial mastermind

The Sandton businessman and his R350bn airfield project in the Free State put the Steinhoff crew to shame

- Bhekisisa Mncube

Ah, Chief Dwasaho! Today, I present our very own Time magazine “Entrepreneur of the Century” Katiso “KT” Molefe, shunned by his homeland yet hustling from varsity dorms to borders to airport runways.

To the Loyal Five, this is the final installment in our series on unsung heroes. Yes, heroes, not heroines. This column was never designed to be politically correct; here, things are called by their first names.

KT Molefe, for instance, is the Sandton businessman, not the caricature conjured by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and an inert Gauteng police service, which accuse him of unspeakable sins.

My leader, let me break it down for the politically inept, the “news-is-boring” crew. Molefe comes from the same stock as messieurs Brown Mogotsi and Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala.

Around these parts, we call them the Famous Trio of Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi of the South African Police Service (SAPS). It is a cartel that allegedly trades in opioids, political influence, blue lights, government tenders, blood, blackmail, extortion and all the usual sins that grease the wheels of our beloved republic.

(Subeditors will add the keyword “allegedly” where it saves me and this newspaper that runs on “donations and membership fees” from a defamation summons. I, son of MaMlambo, cannot be bothered. My son is an admitted attorney of the high court — take that, haters.)

Another one whose cats and dogs bolt for the back room when he arrives home is Lieutenant General Dumisani Khumalo, SAPS divisional commissioner of Crime Intelligence. He turned up at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, wagged a trembling finger at Molefe and Matlala, and anointed them leaders of the so-called Big Five cartel.