Zondo to grill high-profile Free State officials over Estina

The Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, chaired by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, is set to hear evidence from high-profile Free State government officials in the next two weeks on the Gupta-linked failed Estina dairy farm project.

Former head of the Free State agriculture department Peter Thabethe takes the stand today.

Although the commission has been guarded in confirming the names of other witnesses, Zondo this week made repeated reference to “she”, creating an expectation that the provincial department of agriculture’s former chief financial officer, Sylvia Dlamini, agriculture executive committee member Mamiki Qabathe and Free State premier Sisi Ntombela, could be in the line-up.

Due to a lack of evidence, Judge Philip Jacobus Loubser last year acquitted eight suspects in the Vrede dairy farm project case in the Free State High Court in Bloemfontein.

Those acquitted included Qabathe, Oakbay Investments chief executive Ronica Ragavan, former Sahara executive Ashu Chawla, Oakbay CEO Nazeem Howa, Estina director Kamal Vasram and provincial treasury chief director Takisi Masiteng.

Thabethe is expected to explain:

• Whose agenda he pushed in a presentation to the Phumelela municipal council meeting on the “spin-offs” of the Estina project;
• Why he duped Phumelela former municipal manager Moses Moremi into signing the cession of land rights from the local municipality to the province, which later resulted in the provincial government granting Estina a 99- year lease agreement; and
• The rationale behind the project and political leaders involved.

It has been claimed that out of the millions of rands earmarked for the public-private partnership with Estina – a black economic empowerment company – only 1% of public funds went for farming, with most of the money diverted to Gupta business associates.

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