Estina dairy farm
Gupta associates granted bail in Estina fraud case
On Tuesday, Kamal Vasram and Saliesh Indurjeeth were granted bail in the Pretoria Regional Court after they were arrested the night before.
Kamal Vasram and Saliesh Indurjeeth were arrested on Monday night and appeared in court on Tuesday morning.
Interpol on Monday released a so-called red notice against Atul and Rajesh Gupta, the global crime-fighting body's most severe alert to law enforcement around the world.
The NPA's Investigating Directorate spokesperson Sindisiwe Seboka said that they had completed their investigations and they would be ready to hand over their full docket to the defence team when all the suspects appeared in court in early July.
The group were arrested in the Free State, Gauteng and Mpumalanga on Wednesday.
Former Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane told the Zondo Commission that he did not know that the Free State government had contracted a Gupta-linked company in the failed Free State dairy farm project. It is alleged that almost R200 million meant for emerging black farmers in Vrede, in the Free State, flowed to Estina. Zwane appeared at the Zondo Commission on 13 May 2021.
Mosebenzi Zwane told the State Capture Commission that a provincial government exco had given the project the green light, but evidence leader Advocate Pule Seleka wanted to know if it wasn’t misled.
Former Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane said it was just a coincidence that he and the choir would travel on the same flight that the Guptas had paid for.
The state capture commission is hearing evidence on Estina dairy farm project from former Minister of Mineral Resources Mosebenzi Zwane on Thursday.
Paul Holden said some of the R280 million that was paid by the Free State to Estina was used to raise loans offshore and was only returned to buy dairy equipment when there was an uproar.
A researcher at a forensic investigator on Thursday testified at the state capture commission about the Estina Dairy Farm offshore money flows, some of which he said were money laundering.
The commission is hearing testimony of Estina Dairy Farm offshore money flows from a researcher employed by Shadow World Investigations, London, Paul Edward Holden.
They protested outside Luthuli House on Monday calling on the party to take action against officials implicated in corruption.
Members of the ANC in the Free State marched to party headquarters at Luthuli House on 19 October 2020. The protesters demanded that those responsible for corruption in the asbestos project and the Estina Dairy Farm be held accountable.
They protested outside the ANC’s headquarters at Luthuli House in Joburg and handed over a memorandum of demands to the national working committee (NWC).
Seipati Dlamini was the custodian of finances when then provincial Agriculture MEC Mosebenzi Zwane and department HOD Peter Thabethe bulldozed their way into bringing in the Gupta-linked Estina to run the Vrede Dairy Farm project.
Evidence leader advocate Leah Cabashe asked Dlamini if she had notified Estina that the Agriculture Department had already bought equipment that it could use but she said it wasn’t her responsibility.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Sipho Ngwema said that the suspects were granted R10,000 bail each.
The investigating unit said that those handcuffed included a former head of a department and a retired official over money laundering of over R244 million.