R280m paid to Estina for Vrede dairy farm between 2013-2016, Zondo Inquiry told

This was part of the evidence by former head of the Free State Agriculture Department Peter Thabethe.

A YouTube screengrab shows Peter Thabethe, the former head of the Free State Agriculture Department, at the state capture inquiry on 4 October 2019.

Nthakoana Ngatane | 182 days ago

JOHANNESBURG - The state capture inquiry has documents that show R280 million was paid to Estina for the Vrede dairy farm between 2013 to 2016.

This was part of the evidence by former head of the Free State Agriculture Department Peter Thabethe.

Thabethe was implicated in approving payments that did not comply with procurement procedures, but he denied this.

Thabethe was proud to say that during his tenure, and during the Vrede dairy farm project's time, his department received some clean audits.

"Chair, in that particular year we got unqualified audits. They said to us, your financial statements are excellent," he told the commission.

The commission's Advocate Leah Gcabashe detailed the payments that Estina received over that period.

"R280 million, R202,652... so essentially R280 million is what they were paid."

Thabethe is expected to explain how Estina paid its more than R200 million contribution when it only had R16 in its account at the beginning of the project.

More in Local

Comments

EWN welcomes all comments that are constructive, contribute to discussions in a meaningful manner and take stories forward.

However, we will NOT condone the following:

- Racism (including offensive comments based on ethnicity and nationality)
- Sexism
- Homophobia
- Religious intolerance
- Cyber bullying
- Hate speech
- Derogatory language
- Comments inciting violence.

We ask that your comments remain relevant to the articles they appear on and do not include general banter or conversation as this dilutes the effectiveness of the comments section.

We strive to make the EWN community a safe and welcoming space for all.

EWN reserves the right to: 1) remove any comments that do not follow the above guidelines; and, 2) ban users who repeatedly infringe the rules.

Should you find any comments upsetting or offensive you can also flag them and we will assess it against our guidelines.

EWN is constantly reviewing its comments policy in order to create an environment conducive to constructive conversations.

R280m paid to Estina for Vrede dairy farm between 2013-2016, Zondo Inquiry told

Comments

Choose an EWN Twitter account

Choose an EWN app