What the public protector's Vrede Dairy probe failed to investigate
Busisiwe Mkhwebane's report, released with absolutely no fanfare, recommends that the Free State premier institute disciplinary action against 'all implicated officials'
The leaked e-mails that showed the Gupta family had significant control over the Vrede Dairy Farm contract between Estina, a company linked to the family, and the Free State agriculture department, did not form part of the public protector’s investigation of the project. This is according to the final report on the public protector’s investigation, quietly placed on its website on Friday. The public protector details in the report that she noted the news reports on the e-mails, but that it did not form part of the scope of the investigation. It was one of the aspects that were not investigated due to “capacity and financial constraint”. The #GuptaLeaks revealed last year that at least R30m paid to the Guptas via the farm ended up funding the family’s lavish Sun City wedding in 2013 — but this did not form part of Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s probe. The report also makes it clear that it did not look at how the money transferred to the private partner, Estina, was spent, as ...
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