The trial of two companies and former government officials in the R25 million tender for the feasibility study started shaky but gained momentum on day 2.
Standing trial is six people; Gupta associate Igbal Sharma, his brother-in-law Dinish Patel, Ronica Ragavan as well as several former government officials;
Peter Thabethe, former head of the department of rural development,
Dimakatso Moorosi, former head of the department of agriculture,
Seipati Dhlamini, former CFO department of agriculture.
The companies are Nulane Investments and Islandsite.
The accused face four counts of fraud, money laundering, and contravening the Public Finance Management Act.
Set for two weeks, the trial started on Monday with the state witness Siphiwe Mahlangu, Forensic Auditor from National Treasury testifying on camera.
The defense lawyers spent the better part of the two days trying to poke holes into Mahlangu’s testimony including his failure to offer their clients and accused a right of reply in his 36-page affidavit.
In his testimony, Mahlangu said the tender was neither deviation nor public private partnership.
The state alleges Free State government paid the money into Nulane Investments to do the feasibility study in the build-up to what we now know as the Estina Dairy project was then paid to the Gupta company, Islandsite.
It has now come to light that Nulane Investment did not have the human resources nor the capacity to do the feasibility study, what Nulane then did was pay Delloitte R1.5 million to do the feasibility study, and all the money was channeled to the Gupta-linked company.
If you have news or tips please email us at news@stepupsanews.co.za or WhatsApp 0685000246
More Stories
A company with links to Patrick Phuti gets R97 million tender
“Cde Thabo is out of line” – Setai to Motsoeneneng
Women shot dead a few kilometres from Men’s Indaba venue