Eight suspects, including Gupta lieutenant Iqbal Sharma, former Free State departmental accounting officers and representatives of involved companies, are facing charges of fraud and corruption among others.

According to the spokesperson of the National Prosecution Authority's Investigative Directorate, Sindisiwe Seboka, the court will be dealing with the case management session aimed at finalising the outstanding procedures ahead of the trial, scheduled from 23 January to 3 March 2023.

R25 million was allegedly paid in 2011/2012 to Sharma's Nulane Investments, purportedly to ascertain the feasibility of the Vrede Dairy Project under the Mohoma Mobung initiative, with the presumption that Nulane Investments had unique skills to perform the work. Mohoma Mobung is the Free State provincial government’s initiative in line with their Zero Hunger strategy.

Also read: #Estina: State ready for trial

The case is still in its pretrial stage and all parties involved are yet to conclude the case management process, which will then enable them to proceed with the trial next year.

During the last court appearance earlier this year, legal representatives of some of the accused had made a request for further details.

During this court session Free State High Court Deputy Judge President Martha Mbhele raised her concerns with the delays in the case.

She told the State that she had postponed the matter and given parties involved four months to exchange documents.

"I gave you four months to deal with those issues so that if I come today, I must be told that there has been progress so that we can continue. But we can’t continue without knowing what has been done and if the parties are not interested to make any progress in the matter, I will make sure they do it," Mbhele told Senior Counsel Adv. Nazeer Cassim.

This criminal case also featured in the latest instalment of the State Capture report, handed to Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa by the chairperson of the commission, Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.

The accused in the matter include Ronica Ragavan, who stands accused in her personal capacity and in her representative capacity as a director of Islandsite Investments, a company owned by the Gupta family.

The other accused in the matter include former Transnet board member Sharma, former Free State HOD for Rural Development, Peter Thabethe, and former Chief Financial Officer, Seipati Dhlamini, as they face charges of fraud and money laundering.

The former government officials are also charged with contravention of the Public Finance Management Act. The group is charged together with two companies, Nulane Investments and Islandsite Investments.

 OFM News