Environmental Affairs Minister, Nomvula Mokonyane, says in a letter through her lawyer that the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture did not notify her that the former COO of Bosasa Angelo Agrizzi would implicate her in his testimony.
Mokonyane says her rights have been violated and she has raised various grievances.
Earlier on Monday, Agrizzi told the Commission in Parktown, Johannesburg, that the facility and management company paid Mokonyane a monthly bribe of R50 000 over a number of years. He said he was responsible for packing the monthly bribes, which the CEO of Bosasa, Gavin Watson, paid in cash directly to Mokonyane.
Agrizzi said he was responsible for counting and packing R50,000 in cash each month to be delivered to Mokonyane from 2002 until 2016 when Agrizzi left the company.
“We knew she was close to former President [Jacob] Zuma,” Agrizzi, dressed in a dark grey pin-stripped suit, told the inquiry.
“She was going to speak to him [Zuma] and another person to have any charges against Bosasa dropped, if there were any.
“She was the link person for us. We knew that if we had any issues, we could go to her and they would be sorted,” Agrizzi explained.
Mokonyane, who is currently Environmental Affairs minister, served as Zuma’s minister of Water and Sanitation between 2014 and 2018, and was earlier a provincial minister. Bosasa earned huge profits from contracts with government departments and state-owned companies.
It has been under investigation over alleged graft since 2007 but has never been charged with any crime. Additional reporting by AFP
