The ANC has decided not to challenge the testimony of former Bosasa chief operations officer Angelo Agrizzi – who the party’s spokesperson has previously condemned as a racist hellbent on undermining its credibility before the elections.
ANC spokesperson Dakota Legoete said the ANC had decided not to ask the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture for the right to cross-examine Agrizzi about his claims that Bosasa (now trading as African Global Operations) had given R12m to the ANC top six over a period of almost two years from 2004. “Mr Agrizzi has clarified that these alleged payments were donations. They were not bribes,” Legoete said.
“We have received legal advice that there is therefore no need to cross-examine him.”
Agrizzi’s lawyer, Daniel Witz, said not one of the senior ANC officials and MPs implicated in corruption by Agrizzi – including environmental affairs minister Nomvula Mokonyane and MPs Vincent Smith and Cedric Frolick – had applied yet to cross-examine him, despite saying publicly that they were considering doing so.
Mokonyane’s spokesperson, Mlimandlela Ndamase, said on Tuesday Mokonyane would apply at a later stage due to the recent loss of her husband.
Agrizzi had testified that Bosasa not only paid bribes to Mokonyane, but also paid for rental cars for her daughter, and gave her other gifts such as braai packs and groceries.
He also handed over receipts to the inquiry, which allegedly show how Bosasa made a R1m payment to the ANC in North West in 2015, prior to the 2016 local government elections.
He alleged Bosasa would create false invoices to the government to generate such funding for the ANC’s election campaigns.
The ANC’s failure to apply to challenge Agrizzi’s evidence, according to legal expert James Grant, now means the Zondo commission “gets to rely on what he said as if it’s the truth”.
“The political and social implications of failing to cross-examine Agrizzi may also leave ordinary people with the impression that the party simply has no answer to the claims he has made against it,” he said.
However, Legoete maintains the ANC will respond to Agrizzi’s evidence about how Bosasa used funding of the party to ensure lucrative state tenders when it makes a full submission to the inquiry.
Between May 2004 and December 2005 – the period in which Bosasa allegedly made the R12m in payments to the ANC top six – the department of correctional services awarded four tenders worth about R2bn to the facilities management company.
The Special Investigating Unit later found these contracts to have been defined by tender-rigging and corruption, and recommended a criminal investigation. Despite these findings being publicised in 2010, the ANC continued to accept donations and election funding from Bosasa.
Legoete had said earlier that the ANC was intent on crossexamining Agrizzi because his evidence was designed to undermine the party before the May 8 national elections.
“He [Agrizzi] is a self-confessed racist. He has confessed that he hates us.
“We have been quiet as the ANC, but there comes a point where we have to defend ourselves – particularly when such things are said five weeks before an election,” Legoete said...