Today, the Deputy President Judge (DPJ) of the Free State High Court, Martha Mbhele, is expected to hand down judgment on whether the state should furnish the defence with further particulars related to some of the accused in the matter.

ALSO READ: #Estina: Yet another postponement

Judge Mbhele postponed the matter in September 2022 to 3 November.  The matter was previously postponed to allow the legal representatives of  accused 8, Ronica Rogavan, accused 7, Island Site Investments 180 (Pty) Ltd, and accused 6, Denish Patel, to argue the other matter related to the further particulars.

Rogavan wanted to compel the state to release further particulars related to her and the company she represents, Island Site, whilst Patel wanted Judge Mbhele to relax his bail conditions for travel purposes.

Eight suspects, including Gupta lieutenant Iqbal Sharma, former Free State departmental accounting officers and representatives of involved companies, are facing charges of fraud and corruption, among others.

The state alleges in its papers in court that accused persons, including Seipati Dhlamini, Peter Thabethe among others, colluded to divert funds earmarked for rural development in the Free State. 

According to the National Prosecuting Authority's (NPA) Investigative Directorate (ID) spokesperson, Sindisiwe Seboka, these funds were then placed at the disposal of the Gupta family. She says the R25 million was purportedly paid to Nulane to conduct a feasibility study for the Free State Province’s flagship Mohoma Mobung project, on the basis that Nulane had unique skills to perform the work. 

"Nulane Investments, however, had no employees on its books and in fact subcontracted Deloitte Ltd to produce the report, for which Deloitte was paid R1.5 million. The only change made to the Deloitte report was to identify Paras Diary as a suitable implementing partner for the development of a milk processing plant in Vrede," Seboka adds.

The accused face charges of fraud and money laundering. The former government officials are also charged with contravening the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). 

The case, which is still in its pretrial stage, is still battling to go beyond case management. The case management session is aimed at finalising the outstanding procedures ahead of the trial, scheduled from 23 January to 3 March 2023.

Mohoma Mobung is the Free State provincial government’s initiative in line with their Zero Hunger strategy.

On Wednesday, 2 November, the initial Estina case involving R280 million was in court for the second time this year after the state revived it. Suspects including former Minister and Free State MEC, Mosebenzi Zwane, Dhlamini, Thabethe, Rogavan and Ugeshni Govender and former Estina director appeared briefly before Magistrate Estelle de Lange. 

ALSO READ: More suspects added to Estina case, including companies

The matter was postponed to 25 January 2023 for a High Court appearance. 

OFM News previously reported that over R220 million earmarked for Estina to assist 80 upcoming farmers in Vrede was looted from the province without beneficiaries seeing a single cent. Testimonies made to the Zondo Commission, chaired by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, brought to light how the provincial department made a R30 million up-front payment to Estina without any work being done or services rendered.

The commission has heard how Estina’s bank account only had R16 on 4 July 2012, days before the provincial government deposited an amount of R30 million into it.

OFM News