“Why didn’t you protect taxpayer money?”- Zondo asks former Free State agriculture head
A lack of planning ahead of the establishment of the controversial Estina dairy farm project not only compromised the project, but wasted taxpayers' money.
This was revealed on Friday as former Free State Department of Agriculture head, Peter Thabethe, continued with his testimony before the state capture commission of inquiry.
On Friday, the commission tried to understand why Thabethe did not conduct the relevant due diligence while planning for the project. In his testimony on Thursday, he indicated that he had conducted "desktop research" on companies that specialised in dairy production in New Zealand, the Netherlands and India.
Thabethe said he came across Paras, the partner company in the project, during his research.
From the company's website, Thabethe said he contacted Paras and was put in touch with the CEO, a Mr Kumar.