Mkhwebane to appeal High Court ruling on Estina Dairy project
Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane will on Thursday seek leave to appeal the ruling by the High Court in Pretoria that her report on the Estina Dairy project in Vrede in the Free-State is unconstitutional and invalid.
In May, the court ruled the report should be set aside following an application by the Democratic Alliance (DA) and Civil Society organization, CASAC.
About 100 black emerging farmers were promised five cows each as part of the empowerment scheme by the Free-State government – which they never received.
The release of the report was met with discontentment by some sectors of society, including the DA which said Mkhwebane failed to interview implicated senior politicians, Ace Magashule and Mosebenzi Zwane, after inheriting the report from her predecessor, Thuli Madonsela.
The failed R200-million project is currently in the spotlight at the State Capture Commission.