BLOEMFONTEIN – The high-profile Nulane corruption case has been postponed to 20 January next year for a pretrial conference in the Free State High Court. In a statement, Kaizer Kganyago, national spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), said the Bloemfontein Magistrates’ Court postponed the matter during a hearing today – Wednesday 29 October.

The matter reached this stage following a twist.

The Free State High Court discharged and acquitted all the accused in 2023. However, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) overturned that ruling in June last year, ordering a retrial. Following the dismissal of appeal bids by the Constitutional Court, the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) re-enrolled the case.

Kganyago said the matter was subsequently reinstated on Thursday 4 June by the IDAC. The accused are charged with fraud, money laundering, and contraventions of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) relating to an irregular R24.9 million payment made by the Free State Department of Agriculture (FSDoA) to Nulane Investments. It is reported that the funds were for a feasibility study on the flagship Mohoma Mobung project, which later tied into the Vrede Dairy Farm project in the Free State.

Prosecutors state that Nulane sub-contracted Deloitte to do the actual work for only R1,5 million and allegedly funnelled the remaining funds. The accused include three former senior officials of the department, a Gupta-linked company, and several individuals.

“They are accused of acting in common purpose in the alleged irregular payment of R24,9 million by the Free State Department of Agriculture to a Gupta-linked company, Nulane Investment, to conduct a feasibility study for a flagship ‘Mohoma Mobung Project’ which ultimately led to the establishment of the Vrede-Estina Dairy Farm project. Investigations uncovered that Nulane contracted Deloitte to conduct the study, to which they were paid R1,5 million, which was way below the R24,9 million they were paid,” said Kganyago.

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The accused are:

• Dinesh Patel – Iqbal Sharma’s brother-in-law and a representative of Nulane Investments;

• Iqbal Sharma – businessman and sole director-shareholder of Nulane Investments;

• Nulane Investments – Sharma’s corporate entity;

• Peter Thabethe – former head of the Free State Department of Agriculture (FSDoA);

• Limakatso Moorosi – former head of the Free State Department of Agriculture;

• Seipati Dhlamini – former chief financial officer (CFO) of the Free State Department of Agriculture;

• Ronica Ragavan– co-director and representative of the Gupta-owned company Islandsite Investments; and

• Islandsite Investments – Gupta-linked company represented by Ronica Ragavan.