Bully Watson was a racist – book

Former Bosasa boss is slammed in new book by Adriaan Basson.

Gavin Watson, the former CEO of corruption-tainted facilities management company Bosasa, led a life far removed from that of a devout Christian and struggle figure, an image that he so carefully crafted.

He bullied and insulted his employees, called black employees “k ***** s” and allegedly had a manipulative mistress who earned an enormous salary from Bosasa.

According to an explosive new book by Adriaan Basson, Blessed by Bosasa: Inside Gavin Watson’s state capture cult, Watson stood at the head of what many perceived to be a cult, where he lied and manipulated to ensure that government tenders worth billions of rand flowed to the company.

Watson died in a horror car crash in August, while Bosasa is in liquidation and at the centre of state capture investigations.

In his book Basson reveals: Watson deceived the ANC Women’s League when the company was formed. They believed they owned it, while in actual fact Watson took ownership. Watson had pictures of Basson and Willie Hofmeyr, a former head of the Special Investigations Unit, which he blessed and prayed for.

He even had a white cross with a picture of Hofmeyr in his garden. How the late Vernie Petersen, a former prisons boss, was hounded from office by then prisons minister Ngconde Balfour and feared for his life when he started questioning the Bosasa tenders. He died a broken man.

That Nomvula Mokonyane, who was fired by President Cyril Ramaphosa and now works at Luthuli House, was “like an employee at Bosasa” and that Watson expected staff “to drop everything” when she made demands.

In February, Basson testified at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture about being threatened while he and colleague Carien du Plessis were investigating the corrupt tenders Bosasa won from the correctional services department. He also revealed there were plans to “eliminate” him and take him to a prison in Zimbabwe or Zambia.

Basson writes that Watson’s life was much removed from what he preached, and that among Bosasa employees it was known that he was engaged in an extramarital affair with a “dark-haired, brown eyed enigma” – former rag queen Lindie Gouws.

But Gouws denied the affair to Basson, saying that she did not have a sexual relationship with Watson. – News24Wire