Hawks stay mum on other Estina suspects
The Hawks are seeking to arrest five more people in connection with the Vrede dairy farm project, but will not name them, saying that doing so could compromise the investigation.
Acting Hawks head Yolisa Matakata said on Friday that 13 suspects had been identified and eight had already appeared in the Bloemfontein regional court.
She would not say whether the other five had not been arrested yet because they were politically connected.
The charge sheet implicates Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane and ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule. It says the dairy farm project, which enriched the politically connected Gupta family, was Zwane’s brainchild while he was MEC for agriculture in the Free State and Magashule was premier.
Zwane and Magashule have not been charged.
In January, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) placed the Gupta family at the heart of a conspiracy to “swindle” R220m from the Free State government — funds meant for emerging black dairy farmers. The eight have appeared in court in con-
nection with allegations of theft, fraud and money laundering relating to the Estina dairy farm project.
“We did not pronounce on the others [the five] because we were able to establish their whereabouts, and for other reasons which I said I will not mention here, which would probably compromise the other part of the investigation that is continuing,” Matakata said on Friday. She said that the warrant of arrest for family patriarch Ajay Gupta was for another corruption case and not linked to the Vrede dairy farm project.
Gupta is on the run and has been branded a fugitive. His lawyers have been asked to hand him over to the Hawks. He was not in the country when the warrant of arrest was issued.
It is suspected that the warrant of arrest is in connection with the allegations by former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas that the Guptas had offered him a R600m bribe and the position of finance minister in 2015. Former president Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane was allegedly at that meeting.
The Hawks would not comment on whether Gupta was wanted in relation to this and whether they were looking to arrest Duduzane Zuma.
Matakata said the recent arrests were part of the first phase of the broader statecapture investigation following a year of work by the Hawks serious corruption investigative team. The Hawks completed the investigation in November2017 and referred the matter to the NPA. It is not clear why arrests were made only in February.
Matakata denied any political influence. “All our investigations are being done competently, honestly, independently and without outside influence.”