Congress of the People (Cope) spokesperson Dennis Bloem will on Friday testify on alleged corruption at Bosasa during the time he chaired Parliament’s correctional services committee as a legislator for the ruling African National Congress.
Bloem, who chaired the committee between 2004 and 2009 before leaving the ANC to join Cope, approached the commission currently probing state capture with a request to give evidence regarding Bosasa and top officials at the correctional services department.
Witnesses testifying before the commission have explained in detail Bosasa’s trail of collision and paybacks to high ranking government officials and ministers over a period of nearly two decades.
Former prisons boss Linda Mti and the department’s former chief financial officer Patrick Gillingham allegedly scored houses, cash and vehicles while government ministers and ANC bigwigs had state of the art security systems installed at their private homes at no charge.
Additionally, former president Jacob Zuma was allegedly paid R300 000 in cash, delivered personally by Bosasa CEO Gavin Watson, to thwart an investigation by the Special Investigative Unit (SIU) into the company’s affairs.
Bosasa’s wishes came true as the decade-old SIU report detailing Bosasa’s illegal and corrupt activities is still gathering dust at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), which never brought the matter before the courts.
Former Bosasa chief operations officer Angelo Agrizzi testified that the company paid bribes of up to R100,000 a month to former deputy national director of public prosecutions Advocate Nomgcobo Jiba and special director of public prosecution Lawrence Mrwebi, from around 2009 or 2010 until the end of 2016.
The hefty monthly bribes ensured that Bosasa, which is now known as African Global Operations and is headquartered in Krugersdorp in the West Rand, was never prosecuted.
Article originally published by ANA
