Vrede Dairy Project: Free State official admits he erred when writing a submission to deviate from procurement practices

26 Jan 2023

A State witness in the first State Capture trial has testified he knew he was wrong when he wrote a submission to deviate from the Free State Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s procurement procedures for conducting a R24.9m feasibility study.

A supply chain manager of the Free State Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Shadrack Cezule, took the stand as a State witness in the Bloemfontein High Court on Wednesday during the first State Capture trial, which involves the Free State Vrede Dairy Project scandal.

The case was delayed in the morning as some of the accused, including the former head of the department Peter Thabethe and its former chief financial officer Seipati Dhlamini, had to appear in a separate case also involving the controversial Vrede Dairy Project.

Cezule was the second witness to be sworn in since the trial began on Monday.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Vrede Dairy project — Mosebenzi Zwane appears in high court for corruption pretrial

At the centre of the trial is the Mohoma Mobung agriculture project — a feasibility study with a price tag of R24.9-million paid by the Free State agriculture department to Nulane Investments (one of eight accused).

The study led to the Vrede Dairy Project that cost the provincial department R280-million.

Read more in Daily Maverick: The Estina/Vrede dairy scandal: A Gupta project from beginning to end

Cezule testified that he was the writer of a submission to deviate from the department’s procurement procedures for conducting the feasibility study. He said he wanted to admit that he erred when he wrote the submission for deviation, knowing the correct procedures were not being followed.

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Cezule testified that he was instructed by accused number three, Dhlamini, to write the submission. At the time, he said there were no supporting documents, so Dhlamini dictated the letter to him.

Later, he said, Dhlamini presented him with a document — a letter from Worlds Window Impex India. The letter, read into the court record on Wednesday, stated that the international company, which is involved in scrap metal and mining (among other businesses), expressed an interest in forming part of a public-private partnership with the department, with an estimated contribution of R1-billion.

Cezule testified that payment was made by the department on 6 April 2011. No tax clearance certificate or bank details were submitted.

Thabethe’s legal representative, Daniel Mantsha, put it to Cezule during cross-examination that his client’s only mistake was to agree with Cezule (as the writer of the deviation letter) and to sign the letter.

He said it was his submission that Cezule had stood by the contents of this letter until he was “threatened” with an indictment and arrest, and then started to “sing a different tune”.

The letter was provisionally admitted as evidence by the State as part of a bundle of documents that included the sworn affidavit of the first witness — National Treasury official Siphiwe Mahlangu.

Zimbini Nyezi, the legal representative of accused number 3, Limakatso Moorosi, filed an application against Acting Judge Nompumelelo Gusha’s earlier ruling to allow the bundle of documents to be provisionally admitted as evidence.

All eight accused have entered a plea of not guilty. The trial continues. DM

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