Staff Reporter
The Bloemfontein Regional Court has transferred the R25-million Nulane Investment case to the Free State High Court of South Africa.
A statement issued by Investigating Directorate spokesperson Sindisiwe Seboka, after the matter was heard virtually, said a pre-trial conference has been set down for February 23 next year.
The warrant of arrest against Nulane Investments employee Dinesh Patel, issued in October by the court after he failed to show up due to ill health, was cancelled.
The accused in the matter include Ronica Ragavan who stands accused in her personal capacity and in her representative capacity as a director of Islandsite Investments Pty Ltd, a company owned by the Gupta family.
The other accused in the matter are former Transnet board member Iqbal Sharma, former Free State head of department for rural development Mbana Peter Thabethe, former head of the Free State agriculture department Limakatso Moorosi and former chief financial officer for the department Seipati Dhlamini as they face charges of fraud and money laundering.
The former government officials are also charged with contravention of the Public Finance Management Act.
The group is charged together with two companies, Nulane Investments 204 (Pty) Ltd and Islandsite Investments Pty Ltd.
The case relates to procurement fraud involving R24.9-million paid between November 2011 and April 2012 by the Free State Department of Agriculture to Nulane Investments, a company owned and controlled by Sharma.
From there the funds were diverted to Islandsite Investments.
The money was paid to Nulane purportedly 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.