LIVE FEED: #StateCaptureInquiry August 13, 2019

Deputy Judge President Raymond Zondo is chairing the commission of inquiry into state capture. Picture: Karen Sandison/African News Agency(ANA)

Deputy Judge President Raymond Zondo is chairing the commission of inquiry into state capture. Picture: Karen Sandison/African News Agency(ANA)

Published Aug 13, 2019

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Johannesburg - The Zondo commission will continue hearing evidence related to the failed Free State Vrede dairy farm project. 

A former municipal manager, Moses Moremi, is expected to take the stand. 

On Monday, the commission heard how Free State treasury staff were pressured into making an R30 million prepayment to Gupta-linked Estina in June 2012.

 

Anna Fourie, a former Free State treasury official took the stand.

 

Fourie worked for the provincial government for over 30 years and detailed her initial involvement in Vrede matter. She said on a Friday on June 15 2012, while at a work function, she was asked along with her colleagues that an urgent payment requested by the department of agriculture had to be processed with urgency. 

 

Fourie said the Free State chief financial officer Sephati Dlamini informed them that they had to process the payment of R30 million that afternoon and it had to be ready by the next day when she would be meeting with officials from Estina. 

 

Fourie explained that there were PFMA processes that need to be followed before a payment can be made. She detailed that looking through the documents related to the Vrede dairy project and the contract signed she had several reservations. 

WATCH FEED HERE

The agreement between Estina and the department of agriculture had been signed on two different dates, on June 5 and 7. Fourie said the first issue was that there seems to have been no tender process that was followed, secondly a feasibility study was never conducted.

Fourie explained that if a tender process was not followed then officials had to provide documentation motivating for that deviation, but in this case, none of the documents was available. 

IOL

 

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