Estina Dairy Farm: Ace can start a new party but NPA must still hold him accountable for atrocities

30 August 2023                

ActionSA will write to the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Adv. Shamila Batohi, requesting her to take the nation into her confidence and to address the nation on why the R280 million Estina Dairy Farm case in Vrede, in which disgraced ANC Secretary-General, Ace Magashule, is implicated, was yesterday delayed until August 2024.

This case has been delayed since 2014 and now is only expected to be ventilated in court a full decade after it was first exposed. There is a real human impact that National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Head, Adv Batohi, must account for.

We view this as a continued victimization of the beneficiaries because this means they are not getting what is due to them. Some of the beneficiaries have since passed before ever getting their day in court and enjoying the benefits of being shareholders to which they are entitled.

Sadly, the people responsible for this are out there enjoying the money they unlawfully made out of this project.

As with all bogus projects, Magashule’s legacy is that of no consequence, where the state coffers are looted, and no one has been held accountable. This is what he will be remembered for, that in his tenure embezzlement was the order of the day.

The beneficiaries and their families deserve to benefit from this project, but the continued postponement means benefiting from this remains a pipedream.

Even the embattled Public Protector, Busi Mkwebane, found that Ace and his cabal’s conduct amounted to maladministration which was confirmed by the State Capture Commission of Inquiry. She also found that the provincial executive council, including Mosebenzi Zwane, had improperly appropriated funds from the scheme.

We will continue to monitor this case’s progress whilst fighting for justice for the Vrede Dairy Farm beneficiaries because it is the right thing to do.

Issued by Patricia Kopane, ActionSA Free State Provincial Chairperson, 30 August 2023