This is according to the MEC of Finance in the province, Elzabe Rockman, who made this revelation casually as she delivered her provincial budget vote speech yesterday in Xhariep. The project has dominated news reports since 2013 as it is alleged that the provincial agriculture department spent over R220 million on it, yet financial statements show that only R2 million can be accounted for. OFM News’ Pulane Choane reports that Rockman did not state when the national department took over the project, however, the province will still have some involvement.

While Rockman did not delve much into this, as she did not state exactly when the national department took over the project, she stated that the farming operations will be funded through the Provincial Treasury’s equitable share funding. Meanwhile, last month, the Democratic Alliance called on the newly appointed boss at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Advocate Shamila Batohi, to reinstate the charges against all those implicated in the saga, which includes some members of the controversial Gupta family.

This comes after bank statements during the ongoing Judge Raymond Zondo commission into state capture showed that the Free State government paid more than R330 million to the Indian company, Estina, between July 2014 and April 2016. The company was supposed to have reinvested that same amount of money back into the scheme, which was meant to benefit poor farmers in the town of Vrede. Bank statements submitted at the Free State High Court during court proceedings by the NPA against those implicated, however, did not show these transactions but rather showed that the money was paid into the company's Bank of Baroda account in India. Following which, the NPA then provisionally withdrew its charges against those who were implicated at the Free State High Court last year. 

With the new revelations, the DA's premier candidate in the Free State, Patricia Kopane, said the party is hopeful that Batohi will prove her independence and transparency in this matter by reinstating these charges which have contravened the Public Finance Management Act, contravened the Companies Act, and contravened sections of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act. “We trust that the NPA will bring justice to the Vrede beneficiaries who have been robbed of their right to own land and be productive on it by the very government that should have protected and provided for them”.

OFM News