CLAMPING DOWN ON CORRUPTION
ANC alliance partners call for action against implicated persons
PRESSURE is mounting on the country’s law enforcement agencies not to go after the low-hanging fruits in their decade-long investigation into looting by controversial company Bosasa that was facilitated by politicians and senior government officials.
This week, the Directorate of Priority Crimes Investigation – the Hawks – and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) pounced on several former executives of the integrated management services firm now known as African Global Operations.
Bosasa’s former chief operations officer, Angelo Agrizzi, its erstwhile chief financial officer, Andries van Tonder, the former head of central business and the Lindela Repatriation Centre, Frans Vorster, and chief accountant Carlos Bonifacio joined former Correctional Services chief financial officer Patrick Gillingham in the dock at the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Tshwane on Wednesday.
The following day, Gillingham’s former boss and ANC veteran Linda Mti briefly appeared in the same court and, as with his co-accused, was granted R20000 bail and warned to return to court on March 27.
The Hawks have also confirmed that the seventh natural person is currently in the US, and proceedings to have him extradited have already begun.
The commission of inquiry into state capture has heard that former Bosasa consultant Danny Mansell emigrated with his family to the US in January 2013 and the company’s chief executive, Gavin Watson, instructed Van Tonder to accompany them to the US to ensure that he (Mansell) does not turn on Watson. Van Tonder told the commission, chaired by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, that Mansell was “very much involved in unlawful practices at Bosasa”.
The commission heard that Mansell left the country when Bosasa found out about the probe by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) into its dodgy correctional services contracts.
The seven, aged between 50 and 78, have been charged along with juristic persons – Bosasa, its subsidiary companies Sondolo IT (now known as Global Technology Systems) and
Phezulu Fencing.
Mti, Gillingham, Agrizzi, Van Tonder and the three companies face charges of contravening the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act and money laundering, while Vorster and Bonifacio have been charged separately.
The charges against the men relate to the awarding of four lucrative tenders worth over R1.6 billion by Correctional Services between 2004 and 2006 to Bosasa, Sondolo IT and Phezulu Fencing. One of the two tenders awarded to Sondolo IT, worth about R237 million to monitor staff and inmates through CCTV in 66 maximum security prisons, was unlawfully extended for almost R209m.
Despite the SIU finalising its investigation in 2009, the implicated parties were only arrested this week after attempts by former SAA chairperson Dudu Myeni to get the NPA to terminate the investigation, according to Agrizzi’s testimony at the commission.
Agrizzi admitted that Bosasa paid suspended deputy national director of public prosecutions Nomgcobo Jiba, Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit boss Lawrence Mrwebi and their secretary, Jackie Lepinka, monthly bribes of between R10000 and R100000 to provide Mti with regular updates on the investigation and prosecution of the company, its bosses and senior correctional services officials.
The SA Prisoners Organisation for Human Rights has lauded the arrests but asked whether the “big fish” such as Watson, former sports and correctional services minister Ngconde Balfour, current deputy minister Thabang Makwetla, and the department’s former national commissioner Zachariah Modise were next.
In his testimony at the commission, Agrizzi defended Balfour against claims that he had received a luxury German SUV from Bosasa, saying all the former minister got from the company was a glass of red wine. In fact, Agrizzi added, it was Mti who got a silver VW Touareg V8 from Bosasa.
He also revealed that Modise was paid R20 000 a month by Bosasa along with six other senior correctional services officials who were paid between R10000 and R15000 monthly.
Cosatu, the country’s biggest trade union federation and a key ANC ally, has called on the governing party’s leaders implicated in the state capture inquiry and the looting of the doomed VBS Mutual Bank to recuse themselves from the organisation’s election lists as there are enough capable and honest people in its ranks.
ANC national chairperson and Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe, his environmental affairs counterpart Nomvula Mokonyane and Makwetla have been named as beneficiaries of the largesse that Bosasa dished out to its top leaders, their allies and senior deployees.
Another ANC ally, the SACP, demanded that arrests and prosecution of those involved in the corruption must not wait for the commission to complete its work, where there is sufficient evidence.
Key among the questions from this past week’s dramatic events is the absence of Watson from any of the provisional charge sheets. Several current and former Bosasa executives and employees told the commission that Watson boasted that nothing could be pinned on him as he had never signed any document that could incriminate him but left such tasks to his subordinates, many of whom will be back in court next month to face serious fraud, corruption, racketeering and money laundering charges.