The Estina dairy project of 2013 was not the Free State's first experiment with paying first and delivering never. Three years earlier, under Premier Ace Magashule and Human Settlements MEC Mosebenzi Zwane, the province took a R1 billion housing allocation, dropped open tendering in favour of a database of 106 preferred contractors, and — against its own legal advice — paid contractors in advance so that the money would not lapse at year-end. Roughly R631 million went out in 2010–11. The houses were not built.
The Zondo Commission's Part 4 report (April 2022) called the programme a "dismal failure" and found that Zwane "failed to provide proper provincial leadership"; it recommended that law-enforcement agencies investigate Zwane and head of department Mpho Mokoena with a view to prosecution. Mokoena was later convicted in a separate matter and became a state witness. At the Commission Zwane testified: "I did ask why we were not following the open tender system... I was given a response that it was according to the Housing Act" — and admitted he had not known the Housing Act existed a year into the job. Magashule moved him to the agriculture portfolio, where the same officials ran the Estina scheme.