Mosebenzi Zwane bides his time as Estina corruption case postponed

The pretrial conference of the R280m Estina fraud, corruption and money-laundering case which involves former minister Mosebenzi Zwane was postponed to April in the Bloemfontein high court on Wednesday.

In a brief appearance, judge Johannes Daffue postponed the matter after an agreement between the state and the defence lawyers.

Zwane is charged alongside:

• former Free State head of department for agriculture & rural development Peter Thabethe;
• former CFO Seipati Dhlamini;
• former chief director district services Takisi Masiteng;
• Estina director Kamal Vasram;
• former director of the Gupta-owned Islandsite Ronica Ragavan; and
• former Sahara Computers employee Ugeshni Govender.

Shortly after the matter was adjourned, Zwane said he has taken a “posture as a leader” of not pre-empting what will happen in court.

“I believe that I also should be given an opportunity to put my side of the story without making anybody feel disrespected. So I stand firm to my commitment that I will co-operate with the law,” Zwane said.

The charges emanate from the alleged looting of the Free State agriculture department through a Gupta-linked company called Estina, which funnelled funds meant for the development of emerging black farmers to other companies linked to the controversial Gupta family.

Zwane, who was the Free State agriculture MEC when the project was undertaken, was charged with corruption and fraud.

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