DA targets protector over dairy farm
PUBLIC PROTECTOR advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane will respond today to the DA’s claims that her report into the Estina Dairy Farm scandal was a “cover-up” to shield former Free State premier Ace Magashule from criminal prosecution.
Mkhwebane will file responding papers in the North Gauteng High Court, sitting in Pretoria after the DA lodged an application at the same court for her Estina Dairy report, published in February, to be set aside.
None of the politicians, including Magashule and former mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane, were criminally charged for their perceived role in the R342 million scandal, which allegedly benefited the Guptas.
Yesterday, the DA argued that Mkhwebane had ignored various media reports that emerged in 2013 and 2014, including the Gupta leaks which, according to their papers, directly linked Magashule and Zwane to the alleged acts of corruption and fraud.
In its application, the party argued that Mkhwebane ignored salient issues brought to her attention by the DA’s Free State caucus leader, Roy Jankielsohn, in May 2016.
Jankielsohn, according to evidence before the court, blew the whistle on alleged corruption and the waste of taxpayers’ money. He initially lodged a complaint to the former public protector, Thuli Madonsela, on September12, 2013. Jankielsohn made a second complaint on March28, 2014.
In the two reports, Jankielsohn complained about gross irregularities and irregular expenditure in the Vrede Dairy Farm project. He also complained about the inflated cost and undue secrecy around the project by the provincial government.
In the third complaint, lodged on May10, 2016, Jankielsohn, according to DA’s argument, raised broader and potentially more serious concerns over the role of the provincial government, Magashule in particular, in the implementation of the project.
His submission came after the National Treasury had already concluded its investigation into the Estina Dairy Farm and revealed that the project was riddled with irregularities.
Owing to the National Treasury’s findings, Jankielsohn asked the public protector to investigate the role of Magashule and his provincial government in the matter, especially the irregular appointment of Estina. He also asked Mkhwebane to investigate Magashule for failing to implement the National Treasury’s recommendation to take disciplinary action against Agriculture Department head Peter Thabethe for awarding the tender to Estina.
According to the DA, between mid2013 and early 2014, long before the Gupta leaks, the news media published several damning reports on the Vrede dairy farm project. “The articles alleged that the project was mired in fraud, serious procurement irregularities and probable corruption.
“The articles indicated that information in the public domain ‘strongly suggested’ that the Guptas and their allies in the Free State government – namely, the then MEC for Agriculture, Mosebenzi Zwane, and Premier Ace Magashule – played key roles in spearheading the project and pushing it through without following due processes,” DA federal council chairperson James Selfe argued through their legal counsel.
He said the report showed that the Guptas were the main beneficiaries.
Selfe, in his papers, argued that Mkhwebane chose to overlook all this damning evidence when she exonerated Magashule and Zwane of acts of wrongdoing.