‘NPA caught with its pants down’: ActionSA outraged with decade-long delays in Estina dairy farm case

While the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) promised it would reinstate the Estina dairy farm case after it was struck off the court roll in the Free State High Court, ActionSA called extensive delays in prosecution a “travesty of justice”.

The trial was set for 5 August to 13 September this year before the court decided on Wednesday it would not proceed due to the defence claiming it was unable to access the electronic version of the hard copies of the so-called ‘Gupta leaks’ emails.

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The Estina dairy farm matter involves millions of rands in state funds that were looted from the Free State Agriculture Department between July 2012 and April 2014.

Suspects include former Free State Agriculture MEC Mosebenzi Zwane, former and current department officials, and Gupta associates. Charges against them include fraud, corruption and money laundering amounting to R280 million.

‘Get your act together’

ActionSA’s chairperson in the Free State, Patricia Kopane called the delays unreasonable.

“ActionSA intends to write to the Minister of Justice to demand urgent action in holding the NPA accountable for this matter and will demand the urgent reinstatement of the case,” she said.

Kopane said almost 10 years ago, the party wrote to the National Director of Public Prosecutions, advocate Shamila Batohi, to get an understanding of the delays in prosecuting the case and raised concerns that the case would not proceed “if the NPA did not get its act together”.

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“It is unthinkable, in any country where the rule of law is upheld, that a case delayed since 2014 and now, a decade later, finally expected to be ventilated in court, would see the NPA caught with its pants down, leaving justice hanging in the balance.

“ActionSA continues to express concern about the evident lack of successful state capture prosecutions and convictions, despite the final Zondo Commission Reports, which cost taxpayers over R1 billion to produce, being handed over to President Cyril Ramaphosa more than two years ago.”

“This raises questions about whether the NPA, under its current leadership, can deliver the justice demanded by South Africans.”

Kopane called the “shameful ruling” a “damning indictment of a justice system that appears to be in a stagnant rut”, where South Africans are no closer to seeing accountability from the corrupt.