Former Mineral Resources Minister, Mosebenzi Zwane appeared in Bloemfontein Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
Ronica Ragavan, former Islandsite Director, and former Gupta’s owned Sahara Computers employee Ugeshni Govender joined him on the dock.
The trio faces fraud, theft, corruption, and money laundering charges related to the R280 million Estina Dairy farm project.
In a statement, Sindisiwe Seboka, the National Spokesperson of the Investigating Directorate said the arrests are in connection with alleged looting from the Free State Department of Agriculture by a company named Estina.
She said more arrests are expected, but it would be mostly companies.
It is believed that the alleged fraudulent deal stems from an agreement that Free State Agriculture signed on July 5, 2012 with Estina (Pty) (Ltd) concerning establishing and implementing a dairy farm project in Vrede.
In terms of the agreement, Estina was to provide a capital injection of R228 million.
A company registered in India, Paras Dairy, was presented as Estina’s partner in the Vrede Dairy Project.
According to the charge sheet of the Investigating Directorate, the contract between Estina and the Department of Agriculture stipulated that 51% belonged to the beneficiaries and the remaining shares were to be owned by Estina.
As part of this agreement, Estina was also granted 99 years of rent-free occupancy.
In addition, the agreement stipulated that the department would contribute R342 million including VAT over a period of three years. It is alleged that Estina received R280 million between July 2012 and August 2013
According to the investigation, no proper tender procedures were followed when it came to funding the proposed Vrede Dairy Project.
Despite the agreement, Estina failed to fulfil its obligations as only the department paid the contribution.
According to Seboka, the other accused previously arrested in 2018 will appear on the next court date.
“The ID’s enrolment of this case shows its commitment to pursuing state capture perpetrators”, says Advocate Andrea Johnson, head of the Investigating Directorate.
He said this case should serve as a reminder to the people of the Free State that this matter was not forgotten. According to Johson, it does take a great deal of time to put together appropriate charges for such complex cases.
Despite its noble intentions, the Vrede Dairy Project wrecked the lives of people and communities it was supposed to empower and uplift. In enrolling the case, justice is being delivered to those who were allegedly prejudiced by a criminal’s conduct,” Johnson said.
All three accused received R10 000 bail in the matter, where state prosecutors were not opposing the application
Be First to Comment