This as the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria set Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s report into the matter aside on Monday, with Judge Ronel Tolmay calling the report unconstitutional and invalid.  The DA and the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac) took the long-awaited report up for review after it was released on the morning of February 9 to widespread attention and criticism. The applicants accused Mkhwebane of letting the politicians who were at the helm in the province at the time off the hook by not probing their role further. One of the controversial project’s biggest critics, DA Member of the Free State Legislature (MPL), Roy Jankielsohn, welcomes Tolmay’s judgment.

The high ranking officials accused of not being held accountable in the report are former Free State Premier and current ANC Secretary General, Ace Magashule as well as MP Mosebenzi Zwane, who was MEC of Agriculture in the province when the project was initiated.Mkhwebane’s legal team, headed by Vuyani Ngalwana SC argued the application “is not about the Public Protector, but is about the DA trying to impose its investigation method on the Public Protector”, Ngalwana further stated that if the DA wants to govern in the Free State, “then it must compete politically in that province”.  Leader of the DA, Mmusi Maimane has called the judgment a vindication and “victory in the fight against corruption”. Maimane is now seeking an update from the Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Shamila Batohi on the matter.

The criminal case fell flat after the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) provisionally dropped charges against all the accused in the Vrede Dairy criminal case in December 2018. The authority’s Asset Forfeiture Unit had already at that point suffered several blows in the Free State High Court that year. The NPA provincial spokesperson, Phaladi Shuping said the reason behind the withdrawal is their inability to obtain crucial information from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and India on the case in time. The accused: former Free State Agriculture head Peter Thabethe, General Manager for District Services at the Free State Agriculture Department, Takisi Masiteng, former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Free State Agriculture Department Sylvia Dlamini, Gupta affiliates and associates, Ronica Raghavan, Nazeem Howa, Ashu Chawla and Varun Gupta were arrested, appeared in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court and released out on bail in February 2018. Six months later, the accused returned to the courthouse where they maintained their innocence in the matter. The NPA was given a lifeline by Magistrate Collin Nenkosi, who postponed the matter to December 4, to allow the state to conclude its investigations. The charges were later dropped on this day after the state failed to do so.

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