Public Protector has set the fox to keep the geese in Vrede Dairy Project
9 February 2018
The report on the Vrede Dairy Project, issued by the Public Protector (PP) under a cloud of secrecy earlier today, confirms that the Free State Department of Agriculture and its former MEC, Mosebenzi Zwane, are guilty of gross negligence and maladministration. The report, however, is flawed when it comes to the proposed remedial steps as the PP has set the fox to keep the geese by appointing Ace Magashule as the person who must mete out the punishment, said Wouter Wessels, FF Plus MP and parliamentary spokesperson for Agriculture, after the report was released.
“The Vrede Dairy Project on the farm Kruynaauwslust, just outside Vrede in the Free State, has been a controversial topic for quite some time now and is also part of the ongoing state capture investigation. The project cost tax payers nearly R570 million and most of the money was paid out to Gupta beneficiaries by means of the so-called implementation agent, Estina (Pty) Ltd. The approximately 100 members of the community and emerging farmers that were supposed to benefit from the project are destitute, while nearly none of the planned activities are taking place on the farm as there is basically no equipment to speak of.
“The FF Plus welcomes the PP’s confirmation that Minister Zwane and the Free State Department of Agriculture are guilty of jobbery, but is not at all satisfied with the remedial steps proposed by the PP. The fact that it took the present PP so long to release the report is also unacceptable as the majority of the report had already been compiled by the former PP, Ms Thuli Madonsela. This raises questions concerning the present PP’s credibility.
“The fact that the PP appointed Premier Ace Magashule to take disciplinary action against the Department is ludicrous. It was the legal division in the Department of the Premier that approved and signed off on the contract between Estina and the Department of Agriculture.
“The Department of the Premier was directly involved in trips to India with, amongst others, Minister Zwane at the commencement of the project. In addition, the Hawks seized the Premier’s office just two weeks ago in order to confiscate all the documentation that relates to the Vrede Dairy Project.
“The Premier also chose to defend the project for years on end and refused to pay any attention to the evidence of money squandering with the project and ignored the repeated objections of the various oppositional parties.
“Instead of acting like a responsible and accountable Premier, he allowed the jobbery to continue right under his nose and so under his leadership, millions of rands of Free State tax payers’ money was squandered.
“The PP has set the fox to keep the geese and it seems as if she did it on purpose so as to suggest that the fox is innocent.
“We now put our faith in the Hawks’ investigation into the irregularities and blatant corruption and theft with the project and we hope that the guilty parties will be called to account by the judicial system,” said Wessels.
Issued by Wouter Wessels, FF Plus MP, 9 February 2018
