Farm managers in the hot seat
Three managers of Zebediela Citrus, about 30 km outside of Mokopane, were granted bail on Friday morning in the Mokopane Magistrate's Court after they were arrested on 9 December by the Hawks for fraud.
MOKOPANE -Three managers of Zebediela Citrus, about 30 km outside of Mokopane, were granted bail on Friday morning in the Mokopane Magistrate’s Court after they were arrested on 9 December by the Hawks for fraud.
Lieutenant Robert Netshiunda, Hawks Spokesperson, said: “The three suspects were arrested for allegedly defrauding the estate of millions of rands through the illegal exportation of products that did not comply with international standards.”
The suspects appeared in the Mokopane Magistrate’s court on 10 December but the case was postponed by a day to give the state an opportunity to compile a profile of the accused.
According to an article in the Sowetan, “the Bjatladi Communal Property Association (CPA) recently approached the Polokwane High Court for an urgent application to have the management rights of the three stripped.
This is an ongoing saga with the community claiming that the Henley Group, a company appointed to assist them to run the farm, failed to transfer skills and pay profit dividends.”
The farm is currently run through Zebediela Citrus, which is partly owned by the CPA, the Henley Group and a workers’ trust.
The three suspects appeared in court on Friday morning before magistrate Farial Hoosan to apply for a schedule five bail application, (it should be proven that the granting of bail is within the interest of justice.)
The suspects defense attorneys handed in their affidavits to the magistrate.
Applicant three’s affidavit stated:
“I nor my co-accused have ever given an order that low quality products should be shipped. On the contrary it was made very clear that all precautions should be taken to avoid mixing EU complaint fruit with non EU complaint fruit. We have nothing to gain by mixing these fruit as we have more than enough complaint EU fruit. We are innocent and these allegations are blatantly false.”
The state prosecutor said, the state has no objection to the granting of bail.
Bail of R20 000 each was granted to the suspects by magistrate Hoosan.
The suspects were to hand in their passports within 24 hours, but they are entitled to move freely within the South-Africa border. The case was postponed to 14 March.
