Zuma, Jiba et al linked to Bosasa
Publish date: 21 January 2019
Issue Number: 4620
Diary: Legalbrief Today
Category: Zondo inquiry
Former President Jacob Zuma and top NPA officials were on Bosasa’s payroll, according to testimony expected to be delivered to the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture this week by the company’s former chief operating officer, Angelo Agrizzi. The Sunday Times notes insiders who have seen Agrizzi’s full affidavit, say it contains details of how company CEO Gavin Watson made payments to Zuma, suspended deputy NDPP Nomgcobo Jiba and Special Director of Public Prosecutions Lawrence Mrwebi in return for their protection from prosecution in connection with dodgy state contracts. Agrizzi is going to claim Zuma received a R300 000 monthly payment, and Bosasa paid Jiba and Mrwebi R100 000 and R10 000 a month respectively. Jiba, however, denied stalling the Bosasa case, saying she tried to fast-track it. This was echoed by Mrwebi, who said he has approached the commission to refute Agrizzi's version. Jiba said she did not receive a cent from Bosasa or anyone linked to it. ‘I can subject myself to the commission now because it's so untrue,’ Jiba is quoted as saying. She was ready to be cross-examined on the matter. ‘He said I received R100 000 a month since 2011. That's over R10m. If I got that money, why did I subject myself to all of this at the NPA. I would have resigned.’ Jiba said she wants the police to get to the bottom of who took money from Bosasa in her name. Zuma's spokesperson, Vukile Mathabela, reportedly did not respond to questions. Although Agrizzi has already delivered riveting allegations about bribery on a grand scale (see separate report below), the Sunday Times says Agrizzi is keeping the best for last. It says he will tell Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo that Zuma and the NPA pair were still receiving their monthly payments when he left the company in 2016.
Zuma was asked to intervene and stop the criminal investigation into Bosasa, Agrizzi will claim. According to the Sunday Times sources, Agrizzi will claim Zuma personally intervened in setting up a meeting between senior Hawks officials and the company. It adds those who have seen Agrizzi's full affidavit say he will detail how, on a separate occasion, Watson told him that he had instructed Zuma to call former Hawks head Anwa Dramat to quash the criminal investigation into Bosasa. Investigators of the commission have in their possession a recording of Watson boasting about his relationship with Zuma and his ability to influence him in relation to the NPA. They will also rely on phone signals to corroborate the information provided to them by Agrizzi to confirm that Watson was in Nkandla at the time Agrizzi will allege he was. So far, a team of investigators working for the commission have also corroborated information that Dudu Myeni, who is known to be a Zuma proxy, called for a meeting with Agrizzi and Watson, allegedly to discuss the quashing of the Hawks probe into Bosasa and the pending criminal prosecution by the NPA. As reported in Legalbrief Today, the commission heard last week that Myeni showed the two men confidential information from the NPA at a meeting at the Sheraton hotel in Pretoria.
How Bosasa hooked former Zuma’s closest political allies – Myeni and Nomvula Mokonyane – is described in another Sunday Times report. Frozen chickens, braai packs, expensive whisky and a Louis Vuitton handbag stuffed with R300 000 in cash was the lure, according to what Agrizzi is expected to allege this week. He is expected to tell the commission that the company footed the bill for family Christmas parties for Mokonyane, now Environmental Affairs Minister. Myeni is the disgraced former SAA chair and chair of the Jacob Zuma Foundation. A source close to Agrizzi reportedly told the Sunday Times they were targeted because they were close to Zuma. Mokonyane was allegedly approached while she was Gauteng Safety and Security MEC in 2002. Agrizzi is also expected to allege that Watson was paying R300 000 a month in cash to Myeni for ‘onward payment to the Jacob Zuma Foundation’. According to a News24 report, the ANC, meanwhile, says it will not comment on the expected implication of its leaders. ‘No testimony presented speaks to individuals on the front of papers today, we don't have that list. Commission has not (been) presented with that testimony,’ acting ANC spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said, referring to a list of 80 people who were believed to have benefited from unlawful payments. He said the ANC would still support the commission as it also made the ANC realise the wrongs that had been taking place under its watch. ‘Regardless of how many names of ANC senior politicians or leaders appear before the commission as (some) have appeared before, it does not mean they appear on behalf of the ANC,’ said Kodwa. He also denied claims that he had been one of the party's members said to be on Bosasa's payroll.
Bosasa, though, is fighting back, claiming Agrizzi is spilling the beans because of a failed bid to take over the company. As reported by Legalbrief Today, the businessman told the commission he was testifying because of a guilty conscience following a health scare, but, according to another Sunday Times report, a video recording and documents said to have been taken from his work computer claim he plotted to destroy Watson's company after he was fired in 2016, allegedly for stealing money. It is alleged Agrizzi threatened to expose the company's dodgy dealings if he was not given control of it. In the recording, Agrizzi's business partner, Andries van Tonder (a former Bosasa CFO who was last week revealed as the man who took video footage showing how money was allegedly taken from the Bosasa vault to Gavin Watson's office), and Jared Watson, Gavin's nephew, discuss Agrizzi's proposal to remove Gavin. Van Tonder says Gavin must ‘retire to Port Elizabeth’, allowing Agrizzi to take control of the company. Gavin will be paid R10m a month and Agrizzi will ‘manage the media’. Several other options on how the takeover could work are also discussed, says the report. The recording was made in August last year. It, and the documents, were leaked to the Sunday Times by Bosasa employees. In the recording, Van Tonder, who appears to phone Agrizzi several times during the negotiations to check details, says: ‘Gavin must go to Port Elizabeth and let Angelo run the business, but Angelo must be senior. We've done an extensive proposal to Gavin in the past and we guarantee him R10m a month to relax and do nothing.’
Agrizzi, however, has detailed threats he allegedly received from bosses at Bosasa in an affidavit to the Hawks, according to a City Press report. In it, he says the alarm bells started ringing after Watson ‘tried to claim money out of a ‘key man’ policy I had ... equal to R40m at the time should I be disabled to work, or die’. ‘The broker confirmed Watson had proposed the application while I was still in a coma in the intensive care unit at Fourways Life Hospital’ at the end of 2016, said Agrizzi. The report notes he spent months in hospital after an operation to remove a tumour on his heart. This, he told the inquiry, is what prompted him to reveal the wrongdoing he had been party to at the company. But it was in July the following year that he got wind of a statement that the company’s chairperson, Johannes Gumede, allegedly made at a meeting, which he interpreted as a ‘subtle but a direct threat’. Gumede allegedly said: ‘Tell Agrizzi we have been patient and he needs to be careful; we don’t want another funeral shortly,’ the affidavit reads. Speaking on behalf of Watson and Gumede, Bosasa spokesperson Papa Leshabane said: ‘Angelo is a plain liar. He referred this matter to a competent investigating authority in 2018. This matter was thoroughly investigated and the people he accused were asked to file responding affidavits, which they did. The investigating authority then found no grounds to prosecute and the matter was closed.’ Hawks spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi confirmed that the case was referred to the NPA but the prosecutor declined to prosecute. However, private investigator Mike Bolhuis, who has provided security for Agrizzi, reportedly told City Press that there were ‘at least 28 people’ who want his client dead.
The State Attorney has approved requests by several implicated former Ministers and senior personnel to have their legal fees paid for the appearing at the commission, according to Rapport. Former Finance and Co-Operative Governance Minister Des van Rooyen, former Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown and former Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant have successfully applied for legal assistance. Administrative personnel who will be represented at taxpayers’ expense include Ian Whitley, former chief of staff in Van Rooyen’s department, Mohamed Bobat, former adviser to Van Rooyen, and Lakela Kaunda, chief executive in the Presidency. The application by Siyabonga Mahlangu, adviser to Minister Malusi Gigaba, was rejected. Former GCIS DG Mzwanele Manyi withdrew his application for support, Department of Justice spokesperson Mandla Mathebula says. The applications were approved despite Zuma being ordered to pay his own legal fees by the High Court. Mathebula says the calculation of Zuma’s legal fees – as was ordered by the High Court – has been halted pending Zuma’s application for leave to appeal.
The DA's legal team has written to President Cyril Ramaphosa urging an independent audit on all ANC government contracts with Bosasa, the party's leader Mmusi Maimane said yesterday. Maimane said Agrizzi's testimony shattered the myth that corruption in the ANC was simply a feature of Zuma and the Gupta family. ‘It should come as no surprise that the awarding of ANC government contracts to Bosasa is tainted with allegations of bribery, corruption and fraud. Many of these contracts remain active,’ he is quoted as saying in a News24 report. With this in mind, he said, the DA’s legal team had written to Ramaphosa, ‘to immediately instruct Cabinet to audit individual government departments’ contracts and deals with the state; instruct functionaries to investigate the contracts’ legitimacy and terminate the contracts and/or approach the court to set aside these agreements where necessary; direct the SAPS/Hawks to investigate the allegations with the requisite professionalism; and ensure that internal disciplinary action against all implicated ANC members is instituted with immediate effect’. He said they have requested that Ramaphosa respond with these undertakings by no later than 29 January ‘as this matter is urgent’. ‘Criminal charges should be brought against CEO Gavin Watson with haste,’ he added.
