HAWKS SWOOP ON AGRIZZI AS BOSASA RAID STARTS
Gillingham and Van Tonder arrested too as Mti is urged to surrender
Linda Mti, former correctional services national commissioner, was believed to be in Port Elizabeth preparing to hand himself over to the Hawks on Wednesday.
Mti was conspicuously absent from the first court appearance of those charged with corruption at the facilities management company Bosasa.
Earlier, the Hawks arrested Bosasa whistleblower Angelo Agrizzi, former correctional services CFO Patrick Gillingham and former Bosasa CFO Andries van Tonder.
Mti, who at one stage was also Nelson Mandela Bay’s head of safety and security, did not appear with his co-accused.
While the graft-accused Bosasa bosses were receiving phone calls instructing them to surrender in Pretoria, some 1,000km away in Port Elizabeth, Hawks officers were digging up a now-defunct SeaArk prawn farm in Coega.
The calls – made by officials from the Serious Economic Offences Unit – appear to have been specifically orchestrated to take place at the same time as the dig, according to a Hawks source.
“The suspects were ordered to hand themselves over within 24 hours. As those calls were being made, other officers were at the [dig] site.
“It’s not the only place that is being searched. The evidence that has been given at the commission has been noted and it’s being acted on,” a Hawks source said.
“Evidence has been gathered with a lot pointing to senior government officials.
“There is a mountain of very interesting documents, including bank and travel records, which have been recovered.”
For nine years the unit, along with other units within the Hawks and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), has been investigating Bosasa and its alleged bribing and corrupting of government officials to secure R10bn worth of contracts with the department of correctional services.
The investigation, says a Hawks source, has multiple legs including looking at how money was shipped offshore, and is now being ramped up to include the help of Sars, the SIU and treasury.
The four, along with former Bosasa executives Carlos Bonafacio and Frans Voster, are alleged to have been behind the irregular awarding of R1.6bn worth of tenders to the company by the department.
Agrizzi, Van Tonder and Gillingham appeared in the Pretoria special commercial crimes court on Wednesday on charges of fraud, money laundering and corruption, and were granted bail of R20,000 each.
Bonafacio and Voster, appearing in the same court on separate charges, were also released on R20,000 bail. All are to reappear on March 27.
A source close to the investigation said Mti was believed to be in Port Elizabeth and his lawyer had been told about the arrest warrant.
The source said: “He is aware of the warrant of arrest. I think he is going to hand himself over today [Wednesday] or tomorrow. I hope.”
When asked where Mti was, the source confirmed that the Hawks believed he was in Port Elizabeth.
Agrizzi spent nine days testifying at the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture.
He told the commission that every contract between the state and Bosasa was tainted by bribery and corruption.
In 2009 the SIU handed over a report to the National Prosecuting Authority.
The report related to four Bosasa contracts with correctional services.
Since then, no prosecution has taken place.
Mti’s phone was off for most of Wednesday, going directly to voicemail.
It was briefly on at about 3.30pm but Mti did not answer when he was called.
Meanwhile, at Mti’s home in Greenbushes – a home that made the news late in January when Agrizzi told the Zondo commission that Bosasa had installed a security system on the property – Mti’s brother Maxwell, 71, said he had been unaware of an arrest.
“I did hear about these things on Bosasa though. But I don’t know what is going on now,” Maxwell said.
“My brother doesn’t speak to me about these things,” he added.
Asked when he last saw Mti, Maxwell said: “My brother was here last month. He came to visit me.”
The Greenbushes house is surrounded by a large electric fence with numerous outhouses located on the property.
Mti also owns a house that lies on the banks of the Sundays River in Colchester.
The large, modern home is situated inside the gated community of River Side Park.
All the windows of the house were wide open on Wednesday but there appeared to be no one inside.
The house has electric and palisade fencing in front with electric fencing.
Mti’s neighbour Kobus Oosthuizen, 62, who worked at the Kirkwood prison, said Mti did not use the property often.
“His brother comes and cuts the grass. That is really the extent of the property’s use.”
But he said Mti did stay for the odd weekend.
“Once he bought me a bottle of Klipdrift and a six-pack of beer because I keep a watch on his house.”
The evidence that has been given at the commission has been noted and it’s being acted on