The Free State High Court on Friday postponed the R24.9m Nulane Investment fraud and money laundering case until September 8 for another case management session.

Investigating Directorate spokesperson Sindisiwe Seboka said the case management session is to finalise outstanding procedures ahead of the trial scheduled for next year from January 23 to March 3.

The matter pertains to procurement fraud involving R24.9m paid between November 2011 and April 2012 by the Free State department of agriculture (FSDoA) to Nulane Investments, a company owned and controlled by Iqbal Sharma.

From there the funds were diverted to Islandsite Investments.

The R24.9m was paid to Nulane purportedly to conduct a feasibility study for the Free State’s flagship Mohoma Mobung project on the basis that Nulane had unique skills to perform the work.

The accused in the matter are Ronica Ragavan. former Transnet Board member Iqbal Sharma, former Free State head of department for Rrural development (FSDoRD) Peter Thabethe and former FSDoA CFO Seipati Dhlamini. The other accused are Nulane Investment 204 (Pty) Ltd and Islandsite Investments Pty Ltd.

“This is one of the key state capture-related matters that have been before the court since June 2021 and it is an important milestone that the pretrial court appearance coincides with the final instalment of the Zondo commission report,” Seboka said.

Seboka said the case reflects the significant work the ID has already done in some of these key state capture matters

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