It is only then that these two will be able to formally apply for bail at the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court. Their co-accused - Bloem Water CEO, Limakatso Moorosi, and former Free State Agriculture Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Sylvia Dlamini - on the other hand, will re-appear in the same courthouse at 14:00 on Thursday 3 June for bail application. 

It was revealed during proceedings before Magistrate Estelle de Lange on Thursday that the defense counsel only received provisional indictments at the very last minute and are requesting time to adequately prepare for bail applications. 

The arrests were effected in the Free State, Gauteng, and Mpumalanga on Wednesday morning. 

The case centres on a 2011 feasibility study that was carried out by Nulane Investments, where Sharma was a director, on the Vrede Dairy Project. 

The spokesperson for the NPA's investigating directorate, Sindisiwe Seboka, says the study, over R24 million, was the gateway for the alleged looting that took place in the failed dairy project.

Two of the accused - Thabethe and Dlamini - are already facing 54 counts of fraud, theft, corruption, money laundering, and forgery in a separate case at High Court level. The embattled officials stand accused of awarding a number of contracts at the department to Superior Quality Trading, also known as Rekgonne Community Projects, without following due processes. 

According to the NPA, Rekgonne Community Projects, where Lenah Mohapi is a director, did not attend any of the department’s compulsory tender briefing sessions for the projects they were awarded. The company also had a certificate of attendance even though they were not present at the compulsory briefings where these certificates were issued. Between 2012 and 2016, the department is said to have paid more than R244 million to the company. Mohapi allegedly paid money into Dlamini’s personal account and then fraudulently disguised the transfers as refunds from Telkom and “medical services”. Mohapi is also accused in that matter. 

In April, assets worth R249 million belonging to the accused were seized by the NPA’s Asset Forfeiture Unit. They included a block of flats in Bloemfontein.

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