OPINIONISTA: Fitness of the Public Protector to hold office is in serious question By Professor Balthazar
The Public Protector is again in the news and still for all the wrong reasons. This time the bad news for the office of the Public Protector was based on the so-called Vrede Dairy project, the role of Estina Ltd, which is linked to the Guptas and her report in respect of this issue.
He signed the 99-year rent-free lease in Estina’s favour and the agreement with Estina. The department made payment to Estina, without any form of oversight and without verifying how funds were spent. Despite the project having been justified, on the basis that the beneficiaries would benefit from it, the department paid R114-million to Estina, before even identifying any beneficiaries.
Zwane then delegated further authority to Thabethe. The provincial executive committee, which the premier headed, then approved Thabethe’s request to implement the project, and supported the sourcing of additional funding of R84-million from the province. Zwane, as MEC, personally contacted the MEC for finance to request an urgent, expedited a R30-million payment to Estina.
To address the fact that the Free State provincial government under the premier had failed to implement National Treasury’s recommendation that disciplinary action be taken against the Department of Agriculture’s HOD and CFO. Understandably, Judge Ronel Tolmay, who heard the review application in the Gauteng High Court, was not impressed with these arguments.Interviewing and taking statements from the implicated officials and interviewing the journalist who had reported on the project, seems to me to be quite simple and could not have resulted in huge expenditure.
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