Weekend pause in bombshells
Tale of bribes, corruption in high places of government Zondo Commission hears
FORMER Bosasa operations boss Angelo Agrizzi is likely to use this weekend to take a breather before he returns to the stand at the Zondo Commission on Monday where he is expected to give further testimony. It is understood Agrizzi will continue being watched over by security personnel provided by the commission following his explosive evidence this week.
It is also unclear at this stage how long the former chief operating officer will spend giving testimony next week.
Yesterday, Agrizzi continued dishing out revelations about shocking ways in which his former workplace paid bribes, bankrolled the ANC’S election campaign and went as far as settling SABC executive-turned-politician Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s legal bill.
In his third day of giving evidence at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, Agrizzi detailed how the company went to the extent of using the deaths of its employees and their relatives to ensure it had enough money to bribe senior government and state-owned entities officials to ensure it got business.
He described the practice of using the dead to generate cash for the business to pay bribes and advance corruption as “very sad”.
Bosasa signed up its employees to the Metropolitan Death Benefit Fund and had another provision to assist them and their relatives in the event of death, but would claim it made a double contribution to funeral expenses in its books.
However, in reality, it pocketed the payment from Metropolitan, which was often delayed due to the time it takes for the Department of Home Affairs to produce a death certificate.
Agrizzi testified that the money Bosasa pocketed was up to R300 000 a month and was used to raise cash, pay bribes, and for corruption.
“Employees didn’t know about the death benefit scheme,” he told the commission, chaired by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.
He said Bosasa, now known as African Global Operations, was diluting its income and defrauding the taxman.
According to Agrizzi, he was willing to co-operate with any follow-up investigation that may be pursued after his testimony at the commission.
He said Bosasa paid R1.8 million to the ANC’S election campaign five years ago through the social development MEC in the North West at the time.
Agrizzi said he did not recall the name of the female MEC but was certain his former colleague at Bosasa, its executive Syvion Dlamini, would remember her.
He further testified that the transaction in which the North West provincial government paid Bosasa for non-existent services, but a portion of the R3.4m would be paid to the ANC.
Agrizzi asserted that Bosasa generated up to R400 000 a month from the Lindela Repatriation Centre, west of Johannesburg, by running a canteen and operating pay-as-you-go public phones at the facility for foreign nationals waiting to be deported.
The company also used its lucrative contracts to provide cash bars and canteens in mines to generate cash as well as paying host to casual workers.
Agrizzi said he became concerned about the practice because it was very risky and eventually asked that it be stopped.
He confirmed some of the contents of an affidavit of former Bosasa auditor and tax consultant Peet Viljoen who last year lifted the lid on the R500 000 payment made to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s son Andile Ramaphosa.
But Agrizzi said he was not sure whether the payment of the money to Ramaphosa junior was true or not, but that Bosasa chief executive Gavin Watson showed him proof of transfer of the payment to the Andile Ramaphosa Foundation.
Ramphosa has since stated that the payment was Watson’s donation to his campaign to become ANC leader in December 2017.
Agrizzi said Bosasa paid Motsoeneng almost R1.2m in two tranches to settle his legal bill in August 2017.
Viljoen’s affidavit states that Walter Jele from the law firm that represented Motsoeneng, Zola Majavu Attorneys, sent an invoice of more than R1.18m and the bill was settled through payment of R600 000 and just over R587 000 in two days in August 2017.
Cosatu affiliate, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, demanded that all business dealings between the Department of Correctional Services and Bosasa be cancelled including its subsidiaries as they have not added any value but corrupted individual decision makers and compromised service delivery.
Meanwhile, Judge Zondo will on Tuesday detail who he will appoint as the acting secretary of the commission. This comes as Dr Khotso de Wee yesterday took special leave.
Agrizzi told the Commission de Wee had received money from Bosasa during his time as the justice and constitutional development chief operations officer.
The bribe was allegedly in relation to the awarding of a tender in 2013 to provide a security system for courts across the country.
Agrizzi has told the commission that he was informed about the bribe but has no other information to confirm whether it is correct or not.