A prawn farm in Krugersdorp sounds unrealistically fanciful, but controversial state contractor Bosasa set one up in 2015 with the purpose of laundering fishy cash and avoiding South African Revenue Service’s (Sars) tentacles.
Details of the farm were made known during the state capture commission’s hearings on Wednesday when former Bosasa chief financial officer Andries van Tonder detailed how the company cooked its books to derail investigations by Sars and launder cash for bribes.
While the prawn farm bred “beautiful prawns” – and was visited by former president Jacob Zuma – Van Tonder said that was not its only purpose.
It all started with a failed Bosasa venture into the aquaculture business via a project called SeaArk Africa, which aimed to breed seawater prawns in a controlled environment...