South African ruling Party African National Congress Secretary General Ace Magashule briefs the press on the outcome of the latest ANC National Executive Committee meeting on January 22, 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa. GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/Getty Images
South African ruling Party African National Congress Secretary General Ace Magashule briefs the press on the outcome of the latest ANC National Executive Committee meeting on January 22, 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa. GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/Getty Images
Hawks are conducting search and seizure operations relating to the Vrede Dairy Farm matter, at both the Ace Magashule’s premises and that of the provincial Department of Agriculture.
With a new leadership, and a new narrative under ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa, this is a definite sign of action being taken. As the doors were being bashed down to the Free State Premier’s office on Friday morning, it became apparent that this was no ordinary story surrounding state capture.
Why is the Vrede Dairy Farm important?
For you see, the paper trail linking back to the Vrede Dairy Farm is one of the most damning, explicit groupings of evidence you could wish to see. When we reported on this last June following the leaked Gupta e-mails, we had a feeling it would come back to bite state captors on the arse.
It has. And it only gets worse from here. Ace Magashule has been dogged by allegations of lining the Guptas’ pockets. The billionaires took a particular interest in laundering money through Free State, and they needed Ace’s complicity to pull the financial acrobatics they were so hellbent on delivering.
What happened at Vrede?
Back in 2013, the Free State government granted a 99-year lease to a little-known ‘farming company’, Estina. They were given a 4,400 hectare stretch of land at the Vrede Dairy Farm. However, Estina were nothing but a front. The Gupta shell company were completely fake, and listed an IT Salesman as their main director.
But, with all state capture dealings, it takes two to tango. Both Ace Magashule and Mosebenzi Zwane allegedly managed to persuade local government to invest R114 million to the project. Why would they do this? It was all to fund the lavish wedding of Vega Gupta in 2013.
And when you see where the money travelled, your jaw will drop:
How the Guptas laundered money through Free State
Once Estina got their grant, around R25 million was transferred to Gateway Limited on 11 August 2013. That’s a Gupta business in Dubai. Then, Gateway put about R18 million into Global Corporations LLC – a shell company set up in the brothers’ names – on the same day.
From Global, a transfer of R17.85 million went to Accurate, the company who had been invoiced for Sun City. After washing their money in a complex laundering scheme, the Guptas eventually got government money into their own accounts.
What will happen to the Gupta family now?
This isn’t an accusation. Nor is it a suspicion, or a link. This is cold, hard fact. What the #GuptaLeaks managed to reveal wasn’t just who was involved in state corruption, but how the captors were able to launder money.
The Hawks have yet to comment on what exactly they’re looking for. But they perhaps won’t have to look too hard. The Vrede Dairy Farm scam is a scar on the integrity of Free State, and national government too. Without doubt, it is one of the most blatant examples of reckless state capture.
So how fitting that this could be the first domino to fall in a long sequence of arrests and accountability.
