Zondo questions whether enough checks were done on Estina project

"During the visit of the Indian company, Paras, they indicated interest not only in the model but also to invest into the project. Then my concern to them was that it would be very difficult to interact and enter into an agreement with a foreign company. For us to do that, they must register in SA or have a partnering company that we can operate with. They had to register or identify a company that they could work with," Thabethe said.

"It was also in our interest to raise their interest for investment … We had discussions with them, we took them to the site and they indicated their interest … The discussion on a South African company took place in India and here; what we did here was emphasised when he raised his interest .""After Kumar left, a company called Estina came to discuss with us that they have a relationship with Paras and would want to take the engagement further.

Asked by the commission's evidence leader advocate Leah Gcabashe what verification processes were followed to bring Estina on board, Thabethe said two checks were done. "What we checked was whether the company was registered in SA. We have a system in government where we can check it ourselves. We also checked compliance to tax. Those are the two exercises that we do," he said.

A heated debate then ensued between Thabethe and the commission's chairman, deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo, who argued that further due diligence should have been done on such a large contract. Thabethe responded that he was just following government regulations.

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