Former mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane.
The charging of former mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane with fraud and corruption related to the R280-million Estina dairy farm project is “a step closer to delivering justice” to disadvantaged Free State farmers that should have benefitted from the programme.
According to the Investigating Directorate (ID), which is prosecuting Zwane, the farmers were allegedly robbed of the opportunity to benefit from a government development programme that sought to give them a 51% stake in an agricultural entity.
The directorate is a division of the National Prosecuting Authority.
Zwane, Sahara employee Ugeshni Govender and Ronica Ragavan, a former director of Islandsite, appeared in the Bloemfontein magistrates court on Wednesday on charges of fraud, theft, corruption and money laundering.
Sahara and Islandsite are companies owned by the fugitive Gupta family, which allegedly benefitted from the graft, including supposedly paying for the wedding of the Gupta brothers’ niece in 2013.
The Free State agricultural department, which Zwane was the political head of during the dairy farm project between July 2012 to April 2014, was supposed to contribute R342-million to the programme while Estina, a private entity, received about R280-million of that money in the two-year period.
This, the directorate said, was in line with an agreement between the agricultural department and Estina.
“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. The said agreement also contained a rent-free lease clause in favour of Estina for a period of 99 years,” the directorate stated on Thursday.
“Investigations also revealed that no proper tender procedures were followed with regards 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.”
The directorate added that the Vrede project was designed to extract funds from the state.
The Zondo inquiry into state capture fingered Zwane in the dairy farm scandal. In its final report, the Zondo commission found that Zwane and suspended ANC secretary general and former Free State premier Ace Magashule were “pursuing the agenda of the Guptas” by failing to do their jobs with respect to the provincial government project.
On Wednesday, ID head advocate Andrea Johnson said the charging of people related to the alleged farm corruption showed that the directorate had not forgotten the people of the Free State.
“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,” Johnson said.
“The enrollment 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,” Johnson said.
All accused were released on bail.