Hawks arrest five Free State officials on fraud charges

The Hawks arrested three officials from the Free State Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, a former head of department and a retiree for alleged corruption, money laundering and fraud on Monday.

They will appear in the Bloemfontein Regional Court on Tuesday.

This was after irregularities regarding R244 million worth of payments were flagged while investigating Estina, a partner company meant to help establish a dairy farming project for black farmers.

Hawks spokesperson Captain Lloyd Ramovha said the allegations against the five related to a company known as Superior Quality Trading, which also trades as Rekgonne Community Projects.

“During the investigations of the Estina case, it was discovered that there were irregularities in the financial flow analysis of a bank account,” added Ramovha.

“In June 2014, Rekgonne Community Projects entered into an agreement with the Free State Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to implement all projects on behalf of the department for two years.

“Between 2012 and 2016, the department is said to have paid more than R244 million to the company.”

He said former Free State provincial government official Sylvia Dlamini and businesswoman Malikomo Mohapi were arrested by the same Hawks team in July after “an alleged elaborate fraudulent scheme” was uncovered.

Their case is set to return to court on 10 September.

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