Suspects associated with the theft of R220-million from the Free State’s Estina Dairy Farm Project appear at the Bloemfontein Commercial Crimes Court on 15 February 2018 in Bloemfontein, South Africa. (Photo: Gallo Images / Netwerk24 / Mlungisi Louw) 
The current head of the Free State Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Takisi Masiteng, testified in the Bloemfontein High Court on Wednesday that he was not the head of the department during the awarding of a R24.9-million contract for a feasibility study to Nulane Investments in the 2011/2012 financial year that led to the controversial R280-million Vrede Dairy Project.
Masiteng said that during the investigation in 2020 into the awarding of the feasibility study, a search and seizure warrant was served on him, requesting documents related to the awarding of the study. At the time, he was the acting accounting officer of the provincial department and was already a suspect in the Vrede Dairy Project matter.
Masiteng is accused, along with former mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane – Free State MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development at the time — and 14 others in another trial centring on the Vrede Dairy Project. They face charges of fraud, theft, corruption, money laundering and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).
Read more in Daily Maverick: “Vrede Dairy project — Mosebenzi Zwane appears in high court for corruption pretrial”
He is a witness in the current trial, in which the accused are two former heads of the Free State Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Peter Thabethe and Limakatso Moorosi; Dinesh Patel, Iqbal Sharma, Ronica Ragavan and two companies — Islandsite Investment One Hundred And Eighty, of which Ragavan was a director, and Nulane Investments.
They face charges including fraud and contravening Section 86(1) of the Public Finance Act.
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Patel’s lawyer, Kenny Oldwage, asked Masiteng whether he felt compelled to comply with the search and seizure warrant because he was a suspect in the Vrede Dairy Project matter. Masiteng said that he did and he thus gave instructions for the documents to be provided. He said police did not warn him not to hand over incriminating evidence.
Oldwage put it to Masiteng that the warrant for the feasibility study documents was obtained without informing the issuing magistrate that he was a suspect in the Vrede Dairy Project matter.
The prosecutor, Peter Serunye, objected, saying Masiteng being an accused in another matter was not related to the current trial.
Oldwage said the confiscation of documents by the police was illegal because at that stage the current case being tried was not registered. He said that despite this, the warrant stated that it was for an ongoing investigation. Masiteng further testified, under cross-examination, that he was not present during the search and seizure operation and did not sign the list of seized exhibits.
Masiteng was the second top Free State official to testify. The head of Free State Health, Godfrey Mahlatsi, testified on Tuesday. Mahlatsi said the Vrede Dairy Project was not registered as a public-private partnership and there was no money allocated to it at the start of the financial year. However, R30-million was allocated to it in the adjustment budget in October.
Three government officials from the department testified that the department deviated from procurement procedures with the appointment of Nulane Investments. According to the charge sheet, the company did not have the capacity to conduct the feasibility study and subcontracted Deloitte to deliver the service.
The case continues. DM