Staff Reporter
The Free State Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) says a High Court application by the opposition Democratic Alliance to force it to recognise and work with the initial beneficiaries of the Vrede dairy project has come a bit late as work is already being done to address the issue.
The application requests the court to force the provincial agricultural department to recognise, verify and appoint the nearly 80 beneficiaries to run the project.
“The DA’s application to force the department through the courts to recognise, verify and appoint the beneficiaries has come a little too late,” said a statement released by the department on Thursday.
“In March this year the department . . . initiated a process of engaging the initial beneficiaries of the project, through a consultative session that took place in Vrede,” added the statement.
The department said the session was attended by the beneficiaries of the project including family representatives of those who have passed on.
It said the process of verifying the correct beneficiaries is currently underway and is expected to be completed by the end of November.
“It is unfortunate that the DA which has been fully aware of such developments and progress made by the department still decided to approach the courts and demanded that this process be concluded in 90 days,” the department said.
“This is viewed by the department as political point scoring by the DA.
“The department will continue with this process of working closely with the Vrede dairy beneficiaries and ensuring that they begin to benefit from the project . . .”
The provincial agriculture department and the Free State Development Corporation, which is overseeing the project, have been served with this application.
The DA says it met with the beneficiaries on September 9 and got their blessing to proceed with the legal action on their behalf.
In the application, the party insists that the project should benefit the Vrede community and that measures should be put in place to ensure it is sustainable.
“A project of this nature has no reason to exist without beneficiaries. After an initial R380 million investment into the project, which ended up in the bank accounts of the Gupta-affiliated Estina company, the DARD continues to invest R20 million per annum into the project,” said the DA in the court application.
The party said it will argue that the project is costing taxpayers a large amount of money without any benefit to the local community.
“The beneficiaries of this project have been listed as such for eight years without any access to or benefits from the project,” said the DA.
“This is in spite of a contract that exists between them and the DARD that allocates them 51 percent (shareholding) in the project.
“The blatant looting in their name has to cease and the registered beneficiaries should be incorporated into the project.”