The Commission of Inquiry into State Capture‘s first witness for the year, former Bosasa Chief Operations Officer Angelo Agrizzi has revealed the extent of corruption at the facility and management company. He has told the commission of how Bosasa spent more than R6 million a month in bribes.
Agrizzi continued to give his testimony at the commission underway in Parktown in Johannesburg.
Explosive evidence was revealed in Agrizzi’s testimony. This time, the commission was given video footage as evidence to illustrate the shenanigans within the company. The commission viewed the footage brought forward by Agrizzi where it showed movements and activities in the vault belonging to Bosasa.
Agrizzi explained to the Chairperson of the Commission, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo the activities in the video footage. The video footage which has been verified by the commission was taken in 2017, by former Bosasa Chief Financial Officer Andries van Tonder.
Using it in his evidence, Agrizzi explained to the commission through illustrations from the footage the process of how the facility and management company paid bribes.
Agrizzi says the company used distinctive money bags to pay bribes.
The video evidence went on to further show how Bosasa Chief Executive Officer Gavin Watson handled hard cash, which was being purported as money used by the facility and management company to pay bribes. He has told Justice Zondo that all government contracts given to Bosasa were tainted with bribes and corruption.
Agrizzi then told the commission that he pushed for a video to be taken of the corrupt and illegal activities at the facility and management company, to protect himself and come clean.
“The blame would always be attributed to those who had left. When I left, a lot of blame was attributed to me. Gavin Watson would never sign anything. He would tell you, ‘I’ve never signed anything. You can’t pin anything on me.’ And he would them sell you up. That is what motivated the video. I wanted to show you and I wanted to tell the country how easy it is to fall into this trap.”
The commission continues.
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