When people speak of the Estina dairy farm in Vrede you might get the impression of an idyllic, sun-dappled countryside with cows grazing in the green fields. That is not how it is.
Vrede is a sad, neglected little town in the Free State where nothing much happens and little works. Winter there is bitingly cold, the fields are dry and the hard life is etched on people’s faces.
There is little economic activity and farming is the only real means to survive. This is what makes the Estina farm project, concocted seven years ago by, among others, then Free State premier Ace Magashule, then agriculture MEC Mosebenzi Zwane and the Guptas so manifestly evil.
They exploited desperately poor people and deceived them into believing that the empowerment scheme would develop small-scale farming and stimulate the local economy.
They promised them cows and farming skills and R220m was made available from the provincial government. It all created hope for a better life, the ANC’s long-elapsed promise to the people of SA.
Zwane told the community that part of the proceeds from the farm project would go towards the construction of roads, a clinic and bursaries. Not only were the would-be beneficiaries lied to and used as a front to steal millions, they also had to fear for their lives when they started to expose the scandal.
Perhaps the greatest offence about this grand con was that millions of the money meant for that community instead funded the extravagant wedding the Guptas hosted at Sun City to flaunt their wealth and show off their political connections.
Part of the propaganda campaign to deny the existence of state capture and downplay the Gupta looting spree is promoting the belief that these were victimless crimes. So what if the purchase of the Optimum mine by the Gupta-owned Tegeta Exploration & Resources was underhand and funded through an Eskom pre-payment?
Who cares that China South Rail paid over R5bn in bribes to the Guptas to secure Transnet’s massive contract for 1,064 new locomotives?
Does it matter that the Guptas fleeced money from the SABC and government departments for The New Age business breakfasts?
How does it affect anybody that the Guptas landed their jet at Waterkloof Air Force Base instead of a commercial airport?
The disinformation machinery decrees that these are all inanimate entities and none of the deals have any impact on the rest of us.
In any event, is it not better that the Guptas rather than white people got the money? The Guptas at least shared some of it with their friends, enablers and henchmen.
We are so far beyond the realm of rationality in the national discourse that the campaigners for “radical economic transformation” assert authoritatively that the perpetrators of state capture were preferential criminals.
Therefore they say attention should instead focus on the “Stellenbosch mafia” and those working to clean out state capture in the government system because they are driven by racist motives.
Testimony at the Zondo commission this week showed why these attempts to deflect attention from state capture are so disingenuous. We got to see the faces and hear the voices of people who were robbed and threatened for exposing state capture.
They were not politicians engaged in a factional battle and thus manufactured a false narrative about state capture. They were not spies recruited 30 years ago to target the great overlord of South African politics, Jacob Zuma. And they are not “dangerous blacks doing a white man’s job”, which EFF leader Julius Malema warned his supporters about this week.
Ephraim Dhlamini, one of the intended beneficiaries of the Estina project, told deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo how his community had been abused and failed repeatedly.
He spoke of the killing of people who spoke out about the scandal and the death threats he himself had received, which the police failed to investigate.
“In Vrede, once you mention the dairy project or Mosebenzi Zwane, you will not sleep in your house. You will have to run away because your life would be threatened,” Dhlamini said.
“In Vrede, once you mention the dairy project or Mosebenzi Zwane, you will not sleep in your house. You will have to run away because your life would be threatened.”
— Ephraim Dhlamini, one of the intended beneficiaries of the Estina project.
He also testified about how public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane had treated his community with disdain and could not be bothered to meet with them before releasing a report clearing Magashule and Zwane of wrongdoing.
The National Prosecuting Authority previously botched the Estina case — deliberately.
The whole affair is so depraved that milk and cow fodder was taken from the farm and sold back to farmers.
“We questioned how you can sell basically our products to us … We are part of the dairy project ourselves and yet you are selling these things to us,” Dhlamini said. “It was not legitimate activities because they were selling it at night.”
Our country is caught in such a supreme travesty that people like Dhlamini can be treated as lesser humans while Magashule and Zwane remain untouchable.
If and when justice does come, it will not change the lot of the people of Vrede. They were cheated out of their one chance of a decent life.
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