Former Estina director Kamal Vasram added to charge sheet

Kamal Vasram, the former business owner of the now defunct Estina company, where millions of rand were allegedly stolen by government officials and service providers, is now among the suspects charged in the case.

The spokesperson of the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA’s) Investigative Directorate (ID), Sindisiwe Seboka, claims Vasram played an important role in the controversial R280 million Estina dairy farm project in the Free State.

The dairy project left more than 80 local farmers in Vrede, in the Phumelele Local Municipality, in limbo after it collapsed due to corruption.

The former Minister and MEC for Agriculture, Mosebenzi Zwane, who hails from the area, led the project. He was arrested in late September and released on bail of R10 000.

ALSO READ: Estina dairy project: Corruption case against Mosebenzi Zwane, co-accused postponed to January 2023

The case was on Wednesday transferred to the Bloemfontein High Court and is now scheduled for 25 January 2023.

The state added seven suspects and eight companies in the failed Estina Dairy fraud case on Wednesday, including the former heads in the Free State Department of Agriculture Seipati Dhlamini, Peter Thabethe, and Takisi Jankie Masiteng, OFM reports.

State prosecutor Peter Serunye, however, said all the charges against Estina will be struck off the roll as the company has been liquidated. Gupta stalwart Ronica Ragavan will represent at least eight companies charged in the matter.

Zwane 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.

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 farmers in Vrede, was looted from the province without the 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 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.

NOW READ: Estina dairy project: Guptas were pulling Magashule, Zwane’s strings