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Zwane, Guptas face criminal charges over wedding funding allegations

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Vega Gupta’s wedding at Sun City in 2013 was allegedly funded from the public purse.
Vega Gupta’s wedding at Sun City in 2013 was allegedly funded from the public purse.

Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane has said he wasn’t aware that the Guptas were involved in the Vrede dairy farm.

The minister was responding from the ANC’s national policy conference, following charges being laid against him and five members of the Gupta family at the Cape Town Police Station on Monday.

Democratic Alliance finance spokesperson David Maynier laid the charges against Zwane, Atul Gupta, Ajay Gupta, Rajesh Gupta, Ronica Ragavan and Kamal Vasram following revelations that Vega Gupta and Aakash Jahajgarhia’s wedding at Sun City in 2013 was funded using the public purse.

The charges include racketeering, money laundering, assisting another to benefit from the proceeds of unlawful activities, and acquiring, possessing or using the proceeds of unlawful activities in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (No 121 of 1998) as well as “submitting false, or untrue, tax returns in terms of the Tax Administration Act (No 28 of 2011)”.

City Press reported in November that Zwane and his chief of staff, Seipati Dlamini, played a key role in finding between R40 million and R144 million in the Free State budget for the failed dairy project in Vrede, Zwane’s hometown.

This project, the Mohoma Mubung Dairy, was managed by a Gupta-controlled company, Estina.

Read: Mosebenzi Zwane in controversial DG appointment

According to Maynier: “Zwane was minister of agriculture at the time Estina [a dairy farm in Verde, Free State] was formed hence the reason he is included in the list of accused. We would like the police to investigate whether he used his role to benefit the Gupta-owned dairy company.”

Auditing firm KPMG, which also came under fire for condoning and/or involvement in the alleged money-laundering, distanced itself, claiming through its communications manager Nqubeko Sibiya that “at no stage were we the auditors of any of the offshore entities mentioned in the media, including Accurate Investments or entities related to the Free State Dairy project, including Estina.”

“KPMG resigned as auditors and advisers to the Oakbay Group entities in April 2016. Our last sign-off as auditors was in respect of the February 2015 year-end,” said Sibiya.

Meanwhile, Fin24 reported on Monday that Moses Kgosana, who was set to take over as chairperson at Alexander Forbes has resigned from his role as non-executive director of the board of the financial services company.

This followed reports that during his time as chief executive and senior partner at audit firm KPMG, the audit firm allegedly knew of R30 million worth of public money used to pay for a Gupta family wedding.

Read: Ex-KPMG exec quits Alexander Forbes after Gupta wedding claims

On Saturday the audit regulator, Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors, announced it would launch an investigation into KPMG’s 2014 audit into Gupta-owned Linkway Trading.

An investigation by amaBhungane and Scorpio revealed that Linkway Trading was involved in money transfers and laundering of funds for the Free State government’s Vrede dairy project which were used to reimburse the wedding expenses in 2013.

These charges were laid after explosive #GuptaLeaks exposed how the Free State provincial government largely picked up the tab for the lavish Gupta wedding that took place at Sun City in 2013.

Maynier said that “the police are constitutionally required to investigate after a charge has been laid and we as the DA are the complainants in this case and we will follow up regularly to make sure that justice will be served”.

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