The corruption case against former minister of mineral resources Mosebenzi Zwane and 16 co-accused has been postponed to January 25.
The case, which was set to resume at the Bloemfontein regional court on Tuesday, will now be heard at the Bloemfontein High Court.
Zwane was arrested alongside a former employee of Sahara, Ugeshni Govender for fraud, theft, money-laundering, and corruption in September and was released on R10 000 bail. Another accused in the matter is Ronica Ragavan, who is a former director of the Gupta-owned company Islandsite Investments.
The charges stem from the Vrede dairy farm scandal, alias Estina, which is said to have benefitted the infamous Gupta brothers.
It is alleged that in his capacity as the MEC for agriculture in the Free State, Zwane and his co-accused plundered millions of rands meant to empower black farmers in the province.
Meanwhile, evidence deposed in the State Capture Report suggests that the project was hijacked by the Guptas with the assistance of senior government officials.
National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) investigating directorate (ID) spokesperson, Sindisiwe Seboka, said at the time: “The arrests arise from the alleged looting of the Free State department of agriculture through a company called Estina.
“On July 5 2012, Estina entered into an agreement with the Free State department of agriculture to establish and implement a dairy farm project in Vrede to benefit previously disadvantaged farmers and uplift the people of the Vrede area.
“In terms of the agreement, Estina was to provide a capital injection of R228-million. Paras Dairy [a company incorporated in India] was presented as Estina’s partner in the Vrede dairy project.”
According to Seboka, the agreement between the department and Estina stipulated that the beneficiaries would retain 51% of the AGRIBEE entity while the remaining shares would go to Estina.
Seboka said the agreement also contained a “rent-free lease clause” to the favour of Estina for a period of 99 years.
“The agreement further stipulated that the department was to contribute R342-million including VAT [value-added tax] over a period of three years. Estina received R280-million from July 2012 to April 2014.
“Investigations also revealed that no proper tender procedures were followed with regard to the decision to fund the proposed Vrede dairy project. Estina did not adhere to its obligations in terms of the agreement as only the department paid its contribution into bank accounts held by Estina.”
Seboka said the Vrede dairy project was actually designed to extract funds from the state.
Reiterating the NPA’s commitment to fighting corruption, advocate Andrea Johnson, head of the ID, said: “The enrolment of this case demonstrates the commitment of the ID to deal with perpetrators of state capture.
“This case should serve to remind the people of the Free State that this matter was not forgotten. It does, however, take long to investigate and put together appropriate charges for prosecuting such complex cases.
“The Vrede dairy project destroyed the lives of the people and communities it was supposed to empower and uplift. The enrolment of the matter is a step closer to delivering justice to the people who were alleged to have been prejudiced by the criminal conduct of the accused.”
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