THE WEEK 7
SEVEN DAYS SEVEN STORIES
Agrizzi under threat ▲
FORMER Bosasa operations boss Angelo Agrizzi is being guarded by security personnel provided by the commission following fears his life may be in danger.
On Friday, he continued with shocking revelations about his former workplace and how it solicited bribes, bankrolled the ANC’S election campaign and went as far as settling SABC executive-turnedpolitician Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s legal bill.
In his third day at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, he described how the company had used 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.
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. It would claim the benefits and make a double contribution to funeral expenses in its books. 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.
He said Bosasa pocketed R300 000 a month. “Employees didn’t know about the death-benefit scheme.” | IOL See Page 9
Chris Hani’s killer refused parole
CHRIS Hani’s killer, Janusz Walus, has again been refused parole by Justice Minister Michael Masutha.
The minister on Wednesday said there were conflicting psychological reports.
Walus’s psychologist and that of the State must assess him and submit a report to the minister, who said a further profile must be submitted within six months for reconsideration.
Last year, the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, set aside the latest refusal by the minister to place the 63-year-old convicted killer on parole. Judge Selby Baqwa referred the matter back to Masutha. | IOL
Warning on Eskom tariff hike
VIOLENCE similar to that in Zimbabwe could occur in South Africa if Eskom was granted its tariff increase request.
This was the warning by Vusi Zweni, chairperson of Abahlali Bamahostela, who was making a presentation at the National Energy Regulator of SA hearings in Durban this week, to gauge public opinion on Eskom’s application to increase electricity tariffs by 15% a year for the next three years.
He said if the situation deteriorated, South Africans would go down the route of Zimbabwe, where people resort to violence to get their message across.
The hearings continue. | IOL
Tensions high in town
SCHWEIZER-RENEKE remains tense ahead of the release of reports on controversial classroom seating arrangements and racism in schools in the North West.
The town made headlines following a controversial photo portraying four black children seated separately from their white classmates in a Grade R classroom at Laerskool Schweizer-reneke.
The photograph went viral on social media on January 9, after Elana Barkhuizen, a teacher at the school, sent a picture of the pupils in the class to parents on Whatsapp.
Her intention was to show parents how well their children had settled in on their first day at school.
Barkhuizen was subsequently suspended. | IOL
Interest rates unchanged
IN THE first Monetary Policy Committee meeting of 2019, the South African Reserve Bank announced on Thursday that the interest rates for South Africa would remain unchanged from the last meeting, which was held in November.
The previous meeting saw policymakers make the decision on the country’s rates against the backdrop of rising inflation expectations. Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago announced that the interest rate for South Africa increased by 25 basis points.
The repo is at 6.75% while the prime lending rate will be 10.25%.
In reaction, PWC noted that
South Africa’s economy remained at a crossroads in 2019, with demand pressures weak.
“South Africa’s economy is expected to bounce back in 2019 and 2020, faciliated by an anticipated cyclical upswing and improvements in economic sentiment.” | IOL
Football hero Masinga remembered, respected by many
TRIBUTES pour in for one of South Africa’s favourite football sons, with star Lucas Radebe leading the way to the man “everybody loved” after former Leeds and South Africa striker Phil Masinga, 49, died last Sunday following a battle with cancer.
Radebe and Masinga joined Leeds in 1994, from South African clubs Mamelodi Sundowns and Kaizer Chiefs respectively.
“Phil was a big hit with the team and the players,” said Radebe. “I looked up to him, and I think he inspired me the most.
It was great the way he adapted to the situation. He was respected at the club.”
Masinga scored five times in 31 appearances for Leeds. He left for Swiss team St Gallen in 1996, and went on to play for Salernitana and Bari in Italy. He scored the decisive goal against Congo which sealed South Africa’s qualification for the 1998 World Cup in France.
“Everybody loved him,” said the former Leeds captain. “The fans took him as a hero.” | IOL See Page 27
Hugh Lewin, journalist, author, activist, has died, aged 79
ACCLAIMED author, journalist and antiapartheid activist Hugh Lewin has died.
Lewin, 79, worked as a journalist at the Natal Witness, Drum Magazine and the Golden City Post.
He became director of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism in Johannesburg and then served on the Truth and Reconciliation Committee. Among his awards were the 2003 memoir Olive Schreiner Prize (Bandiet Out of Jail) and the 2012 Alan Paton Award
(Stones Against the Mirror).
Under apartheid, he served a full prison sentence for sabotage and left South Africa on a “permanent exit permit” in 1971 to live in the UK and in Zimbabwe.
He died on Wednesday. | IOL