The R24.9 million Nulane investment trial is set to begin tomorrow.
The High Court of South Africa, Free State Division, Bloemfontein, is expected to commence trial tomorrow, January 23, 2023, in connection with the Nulane Investment R24.9-million corruption matter.
The case is based on allegations that R24.9 million was paid to Nulane Investment to conduct a feasibility study for the Free State Province’s flagship Mohoma Mobung project, on the basis that Nulane had unique skills to perform the work. The state alleged that Nulane Investments, however, had no employees on its books and in fact subcontracted Deloitte Ltd, to produce the report, for which Deloitte was paid R1.5 million. It’s alleged that the only change made to the Deloitte report was to identify Paras Diary as a suitable implementing partner for the development of a milk processing plant in Vrede.
In the dock tomorrow are businessman Iqbal Sharma, former Free State head of the Department for Rural Development (FSDoRD), Peter Thabethe; former head of FSDoA, Limakatso Moorosi; former FSDoA Chief Financial Officer, Seipati Dhlamini; Iqbal Sharma’s brother-in-law and a representative of Nulane Investments, Dinesh Patel; and Islandsite director Ronica Ragavan. The companies indicted are Nulane Investments 204 Pty Ltd. and Islandsite Investment One Hundred and Eighty Pty Ltd.
Trial is expected to be concluded on 03 March 2023.
