Former Free State Agriculture MEC, Mosebenzi Zwane, has denied that he took a gospel choir from his home town of Vrede to India instead of the intended beneficiaries of the Vrede Farm Estina Project in October 2012.
Zwane was speaking at the State Capture Commission on Thursday.
Video: State Capture Inquiry | The Commission hears Estina dairy farm project-related evidence
Zwane was responding to earlier allegations made by Ephraim Dhlamini, who was one of the intended beneficiaries.
According to Dlamini, they were promised that the beneficiaries will be taken to India for training in dairy farming and milk processing.
Zwane says the farmers could not have been promised such a trip.
“This trip was around October in 2012 and if you look at your details at what was happening around that time, it was the time where the department was busy still bringing these beneficiaries together. So I don’t think there is an issue or any matter of any people being trained to India,” Zwane told the Commission.
Zwane says also says the fact that he was on the same plane with the Umsingizane Gospel Choir travelling to India was a coincidence and he does not know how the 24 members got to attend a lunch at the Gupta family home in India.
