Former head of the Free State Agriculture Department Peter Thabethe is back in the hot seat at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture in Parktown, Johannesburg.
Thabethe has struggled to fully explain why he had allowed R29 million to be paid to an account of the Estina Dairy Farm project in Vrede before a full feasibility study could be completed.
He is being grilled about the department’s monitoring of the monies that were paid to the project including reasons for advancing the project the R29 million in June 2012.
The Estina Dairy Farms project was meant to benefit 100 emerging farmers but instead millions of rand landed in the coffers of a Gupta-owned company.
Thabethe said, “I am not saying – I am not taking individual accountability but it was not expected of me to tick every block of work that was done because there were people that were reporting to me to say yes this has happened and therefore you can go ahead.”
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