ALSO READ: More suspects added to Estina case, including companies

The spokesperson of the National Prosecuting Authority’s Investigative Directorate (ID), Sindisiwe Seboka, has revealed this outside of the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday 2 November 2022, following the appearance of suspects in the R288 million Estina case.

ALSO READ: Former Minister and Free State MEC back in court

She says Kamal Vasram was part and parcel of the wrongdoing in the project, where over 80 local farmers in Vrede, in the Phumelele Local Municipality, were in limbo following the corruption in the project. The former Minister and MEC for Agriculture, Mosebenzi Zwane, hails from this area.

ALSO READ: No new ground made in reviving #Estina criminal case

He has now been added to the charge sheet and made his first court appearance on Wednesday in courtroom 20, with the matter now scheduled for High Court on 25 January 2022. The state added seven suspects and eight companies in the failed Estina Dairy fraud case today and they included Seipati Dhlamini, Peter Thabethe, and Takisi Jankie Masiteng.

However, the state prosecutor, Peter Serunye, today informed Magistrate Estelle de Lange that all charges against Estina will be struck off the roll since the company has been liquidated. Ronica Ragavan will represent at least eight companies charged in the matter.

The former minister was the MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development in the Free State at the time the project was signed off in 2012. Zwane, who is currently a Member of Parliament (MP) at the National Assembly (NA), under the party regalia of the ANC, initially appeared with Ragavan and Ugeshni Govender, a former Sahara employee - a company owned by the Guptas - on 28 September 2022 in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court. The case was provisionally withdrawn, pending further investigations in 2018. Zwane and Govender were released on bail of R10 000 each.

Zwane and former Free State officials, including then MEC for Agriculture, Mamiki Qabathe, were implicated by whistle-blowers and the DA's Free State chairperson, Roy Jankielsohn.

OFM News previously reported that over R220 million earmarked for Estina, to assist 80 upcoming farmers in Vrede, was looted from the province without beneficiaries seeing a single cent. Testimonies made to the Zondo Commission, chaired by Raymond Zondo, put to light how the provincial department made a R30 million up-front payment to Estina without any work being done or services rendered. The commission has heard how Estina’s account only had R16 in its bank account on 4 July 2012, days before the provincial government deposited an amount of R30 million into its account.

OFM News