Peter Thabethe on to the state capture inquiry why the department chose an Indian company, Paras, as a partner in the Estina Vrede project.capture-implicated former Free State agriculture head Peter Thabethe's own research that led the department to go with a foreign company in the establishment of the controversial Vrede dairy farm project.explained to the state capture inquiry why the department chose an Indian company, Paras, as a partner in the project.
Paras partnered Gupta-linked entity Estina to run the project, which cost the Free State government hundreds of millions of rands - most of which was siphoned off into the pockets of the Gupta family. "That model is the one we envisaged given the situation that we wanted to develop small holding farmers. That is the model that led us to Paras versus other companies."