Gangster State

Zwane’s very own hometown. According to the agreement, Estina was
required to provide a ‘capital investment’ of R 228 million, while the
provincial department would pour up to R 342 million into the venture
over a period of three years.^4 The project’s main beneficiaries were
supposed to have been eighty emerging dairy farmers that were to be
identified by the department. According to the original agreement, one
of Estina’s main responsibilities was to set up an ‘Agri-BEE company’
for the venture. The emerging farmers were going to get a 51 per cent
stake in this ‘Agri-BEE company’, while the remaining shares were to
be transferred to Estina.^5
It sounded like just the kind of plan the country needed to solve its
unemployment problem, but it wasn’t that simple. In May 2013 , when
many South Africans were still outraged by the story that a private jet
carrying Gupta wedding guests had been allowed to land at Air Force
Base Waterkloof, Volksblad newspaper revealed links between the Free
State dairy venture and the controversial family from Saxonwold.
Linkway Trading, a company strongly associated with the Guptas, had
been one of the project’s consultants, and Atul Gupta himself attended
meetings during the project’s planning phase, Volksblad reported.^6
Despite further scrutiny from media outlets, opposition parties and
civil society bodies, Magashule’s provincial government kept pouring
huge sums of money into Estina’s bank account. Most alarmingly, the
intended beneficiaries from Vrede later said they were never uplifted by
the project,^7 while the dairy farm seemingly went to ruin due to
mismanagement.^8
Then came 2017 ’s #GuptaLeaks bombshell: according to leaked
emails and documents, the Guptas had allegedly funnelled more than
R 80 million of Estina’s earnings from the dairy venture through a