These issues include ongoing financial mismanagement, the lack of service delivery, and the deteriorating infrastructure across municipalities. His much-anticipated State of the Nation Address (Sona) in the Cape Town City Hall on Thursday evening, comes after the State Capture Commission's chairperson, Raymond Zondo, handed over the second part of the report to him. 

Questionable practices or conduct in the Free State, including fraud and corruption at the controversial the Estina Dairy Farm Project (R244 million) and the asbestos project (R255 million), featured prominently during testimony at the commission.

Many eyes will be fixed on him this evening as he outlines plans to deal with those implicated in corruption which cost the state R49 billion in contracts with entities linked to members of the Gupta family. 

OFM News previously reported that according to the state prosecutor, Jacyntha Witbooi, the Free State was one of the provinces often looted, with the R24 million fraud and corruption case regarding the feasibility study related to Estina being one of the latest cases added to previous allegations of looting by the notorious Gupta family members and associates.

This as three former senior government officials and one Gupta associate appeared in the Bloemfontein’s Magistrate’s Court in June 2021 for allegedly aiding Iqbal Sharma in stealing millions of rands, meant for poverty alleviation, in an illegal procurement deal.

The SONA will take place at the Cape Town City Hall on Thursday of 10 February 2022.

Watch this space. ‘Unity is Strength’.#SANDF#SAMilitaryPolice#SONA2022 pic.twitter.com/BSm62hWlpK

— SA National Defence Force (@SANDF_ZA) February 8, 2022

OFM News further reported that the leading prosecutor, Peter Serunye, informed magistrate Estelle de Lange that - from the testimonies in the state capture commission - it came to the fore that the Gupta family accumulated R49 billion in the country, with the R25 million looted from the study just being a portion of it.

READ MORE: Free State often looted by Guptas

Entities such as the Free State Development Corporation (FDC) also appears in the report compiled by the commission.

In the report, amongst other statements, Zondo said: “The Commission traced the money that Mr X had received from Mr Thalente Myeni’s business to an R2 million payment from VNA Consulting. 124 VNA Consulting had been involved in a housing project in the Free State Province and had used some of the monies it received on that project to pay Mr Myeni’s business, Premier Attraction. So, the money appears to have originated from the Free State government’s coffers, been paid to VNA Consulting, then to Mr Myeni’s business “Premier Attraction”, then to Mr X’s company’s bank account, and then, on instruction by Ms Myeni, into the bank account for the Jacob Zuma Foundation”

READ MORE: Part 1 - Judicial Commission Inquiry: State Capture Report

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