Estina: leaping too soon, into thin air
It was to be the prosecuting body’s hallmark state capture case — instead, a few months later, it all fell apart
On February 15 2018, the day after Jacob Zuma resigned from the presidency, eight suspects stood in the dock of the Bloemfontein magistrate’s court.The charges they faced included fraud, money-laundering and theft related to the Estina dairy project, a R250m Free State empowerment project that had been bled dry by alleged corruption. Among them was a member of the Gupta family, two erstwhile execs from the family company Oakbay, two of their business associates, and three provincial government officials.The police said they were "seeking assistance" to bring to book three suspects "believed to be outside the republic".Two months later, the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) obtained an order to attach Gupta-linked assets, including cars (among them a Porsche and a Lamborghini), properties (notably the infamous Saxonwold compound) and aircraft.That Estina case was the first criminal state-capture matter brought by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in the post-Zuma era. It was to be t...
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