The Watson wind farm poser
The Watson family‚ whose links to minister Nomvula Mokonyane were exposed during explosive testimony at the Zondo commission on state capture‚ wants to build a controversial wind farm in the Eastern Cape.
And the minister on whose decision their plans depend is Mokonyane.
Mokonyane has a history of a direct relationship with the eldest of the four brothers‚ Gavin Watson‚ and also‚ at the very least‚ a tangential relationship with the “wind farm branch” of the family – two of the younger brothers‚ Ronald (Ronnie) and Valence‚ and Valence’s son Jared.
The Inyanda-Roodeplaat Wind Energy Facility is a wind farm project that they want to build on the top of a mountain in an area of critical biodiversity and environmental sensitivity about 50km northwest of Port Elizabeth.
The 187.2MW project is being developed by Inyanda Energy Projects (Pty) Ltd.
Three of its four active directors are Ronnie‚ Valence and Jared Watson and the fourth is Tandy Ronell Snead.
The properties where Inyanda wants to construct the wind farm are owned by Laidback Investments (Pty) Ltd and O’Feh Investments (Pty) Ltd‚ both companies represented by director Ronnie Watson.
The plan is for 47 turbines on top of the Groot Winterhoek mountain ridge.
The farm would be on 21 parcels of land between three portions of the Groendal Nature Reserve. Groendal is a provincial nature reserve‚ and the surrounding Groendal Wilderness Area is protected.
The project proposal drew strong objections.
But the wind farm received the environmental go-ahead from the department of environmental affairs in April 2018. This is now under appeal. Appeals against approval by the department are adjudicated by the minister of environmental affairs.
An appeals site visit had been on the cards for midSeptember 2018 but was postponed‚ and then minister Edna Molewa‚ who would have adjudicated the appeals‚ died suddenly on September 22.
The site visit was held in the first week of November‚ led by the department’s acting director of appeals.
Mokonyane took up the environmental cabinet post on November 22.
Mokonyane should be preparing to consider the appeals but she may be facing a significant conflict of interest that should disqualify her from making any appeal decision.
The origins of Bosasa Supply Chain Management lie in a company initially called Emafini‚ that became Meritum Hostels in 1985.
In 1996, Meritum Hostels offered a BEE share in the company to a group of 12 senior ANC Women’s League members‚ who took up the offer through the creation of the Dyambu Trust‚ of which Mokonyane was one of two trustees.
The company was renamed Dyambu Operations‚ with Gavin Watson as its CEO.
The trust’s operating arm was called Dyambu Holdings‚ which held a 10% share in Dyambu Operations.
In August 2000‚ Watson bought out Dyambu Holdings’ share for R5.5m‚ and the company was renamed Bosasa Operations.
By the time it acquired its first major prisons contract for catering in 2004‚ the ANC Women’s League no longer had any direct financial interest in it – it was fully owned by a Watson family trust (26%)‚ Bosasa directors Carol Mkele (33.3%) and Joe Gumede (18.5%)‚ and the Bosasa Employees Trust (22.2%).
Bosasa‚ which later became Bosasa Supply Chain Management, and then changed its name again in 2017 to African Global Operations (now in liquidation)‚ came under the spotlight at the Zondo commission in January‚ where testimony about systemic corruption of politicians and state officials by Bosasa included allegations of impropriety against Mokonyane.
Mokonyane has not yet had an opportunity to formally respond to any of the allegations made against her at the commission‚ and she complained through her lawyers that her constitutional rights had been breached in this regard.
Gavin Watson is not a director of any of the companies involved in the Inyanda-Roodeplaat project‚ and Ronnie‚ Valence and Jared Watson are not directors of Bosasa. However‚ the last three all featured in testimony about Bosasa, both by former COO Angelo Agrizzi and his one-time colleague‚ former chief financial officer, Andries van Tonder.
None of the Watsons has yet responded publicly to any of this evidence.
Gavin Watson is not a director of the wind farm project‚ but there is an argument to be made that Mokonyane has been placed in a difficult and compromised position by the damning (though as yet unanswered) testimony at the Zondo commission‚ concerning both her alleged personal benefit from Bosasa and the Watsons’ close family ties that drew all four brothers into the Bosasa drama.
The youngest of the four‚ Daniel “Cheeky” Watson‚ was also named during Agrizzi’s testimony.
Mokonyane has indicated through her spokesperson, Mlimandlela Ndamase, that she will not withdraw from the adjudication process.
GroundUp invited the three Watsons who are directors of Inyanda Energy Projects to comment‚ through their lawyers Rushmere & Noach.
On Tuesday, Rushmere & Noach director Steve Gough responded: “It would be presumptuous of my clients to opine on what the minister should or shouldn’t do with regard to the appeal.
“They also have no on-therecord comments regarding what may or may not have been said about them by Agrizzi at the Zondo commission.” –