The DA has proof that PP withheld information from Vrede Dairy report

12 March 2020

The DA has obtained proof that the Public Protector deliberately omitted crucial information from the final Vrede Dairy investigation report.

In an e-mail dated 13 July 2017 to her former CEO, Themba Dlamini, she indicates the following:

The Free State government gave Estina free land to empower the locals;

It also promised it R114 million in funding without a tender;

It ended up handing over R210 million; and

The Guptas denied involvement – we know they lied.

What happened to the money?

R84 million was diverted to Dubai – only R1,7 million was used to buy dairy equipment; the rest was laundered through various Gupta-linked companies before coming back to South Africa;

R30 million was sent back to Linkway to pay for the Gupta’s wedding;

Examples of expenses include R2,3 million for scarves and R250 000 for fireworks;

Meanwhile, Estina’s sick, malnourished cows were dying and discarded in a ditch;

Linkway claimed the wedding expenses as a business expense, avoiding tax of roughly R8 million;

A junior auditor at KPMG red flagged this but was overruled;

Meanwhile KPMG’s then chief executive Moses Kgosana was busy sending gushing emails to the Guptas about the wedding, calling it “the event of the millennium”; and

Kgosana has decided not to take up his post at Alexander Forbes and the IRBA (Independent regulatory Board for Auditors) has taken the initiative to institute their own investigation into KPMG’s 2014 audit of Linkway.

It is alleged that after meeting with the former Premier of the Free State, Ace Magashule, this information was deliberately withheld from the final report. This email is further confirmation of political interference in her report and that she withheld crucial information from being exposed regarding money laundering and corruption. It also confirms Judge Tolmay’s judgement declaring the report be: “set aside and declared unlawful, unconstitutional and invalid”.

Judge Tolmay further indicated that: “The beneficiaries were the people who should have taken centre stage in this investigation, as they were the people, the vulnerable ones, for which her office was specifically created and who were deprived of an opportunity to benefit and better their circumstances. Instead they were ignored and their interests were relegated to a mere peripheral issue. It is an absolute disgrace that some, as yet unidentified people, benefited, while the poor and the marginalized were yet again robbed of an opportunity to better their circumstances.”

Over seven years without beneficiaries the provincial government continues to fund the project, bringing the total to about R370 million. Without beneficiaries involved on the project this endeavour has no reason to exist, except to launder money from Free State coffers. We have sent this information to our parliamentary representatives as further proof of why the current Public Protector is not fit for office, and to the Zondo Commission who are interrogating the Vrede Dairy Project as part of their state capture enquiry.

Issued byRoy Jankielsohn,Leader of the Official Opposition, 12 March 2020