Zondo inquiry: Department head admits choosing Vrede partner on Google
The former head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Free State, Peter Thabethe admitted to the commission of inquiry into state capture that he used Google to identify a strategic partner in the Vrede dairy farm project.
Thabethe appeared before the commission on Wednesday.
He has been fingered as one of the key figures who drove the failed project.
Thabethe told the commission he is an agricultural expert, but when he joined the department there was no clear plan on how to develop farming in the Free State.
As part of a strategic framework called 'Mohuma Mobung', he set about introducing a plan to develop struggling small scale, dairy farmers.
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Thabethe said his research led him to a company called Paras Dairy in India, which later partnered with an IT company Estina, and entered into a contract to develop the Vrede dairy farm alongside the department.
"The reason we chose Paras was because of the type of model they used. They had been collecting milk from small producers and take it to their facility for processing. That model is the one we envisaged because we wanted to develop smallholder farmers who were closing down in the country."
This led to evidence leader Leah Gcabashe questioning Thabethe's research.
"India comes in at spot 18 on the world scale and their dairy turnover for that particular company was 2.5 billion US dollars as compared to other countries. I remain concerned about the quality of the desktop research you conducted. Particularly because when Treasury asked you for the documents you relied on you could not produce them."
Thabethe agreed that India cannot compete with first world countries when it comes to milk production, but he decided to use their model due to the similarities between the two countries’ landscape and economy.