Bosasa boss ‘could tell Zuma what to do’
A damning audio recording has been presented to the Zondo state capture commission that suggested that Bosasa boss Gavin Watson used his relationship with former president Jacob Zuma to influence the appointments and movements of officials in government.
Former Bosasa chief operating officer Angelo Agrizzi secretly recorded a meeting between him, Watson and former correctional services commissioner Linda Mti in May 2015 in which Watson rehearses the instructions he would give to Zuma to protect his company from prosecution.
Agrizzi told Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo that at the time of the meeting Watson had already secured a meeting with Zuma. Watson used the meeting with Mti and Agrizzi to discuss what he would tell the president to do to take the pressure off Bosasa in light of continued attempts from within the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to bring charges against the company.
In the recording, Watson is heard saying: “Mr President, we need to get to get this thing closed down ... We need to get the right people in the right place. [Berning] Ntlemeza (former head of the Hawks) is the right guy at that place. Now we have to get the right person at the NPA ... ”
Watson goes on to say: “He said Jiba is his person, okay ... Now Jiba has been buggered up, Mrwebi has also been buggered up in the press. So how do we protect them, Mr President? By putting the right person in there. I don’t know who is advising Mr President but you need to make the right decisions now, you haven’t got much time to go. That’s how I talk to him.”..
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