Johannesburg - Former Bosasa COO Angelo Agrizzi insists that the security upgrades at former ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe’s properties were paid for and installed by Bosasa operations and not a donation by the company’s director.
Agrizzi told the Zondo commission on Friday that contrary to denials by Mantashe and his insistence that Papa Leshabane, a director at Bosasa, paid for the security installations at his three properties the projects were done by Bosasa.
The commission previously heard how Bosasa employee Richard Le Roux led the team that installed security equipment at three properties, in Boksburg and two in the Eastern Cape.
The work was done between 2015 or 2016.
Mantashe took the media on a tour or his properties in an effort to prove his point about the value of the security upgrades which he estimated to be far below the amounts suggested by Le Roux.
Agrizzi poured cold water on Mantashe’s claims and detailed how Bosasa arranged for the upgrades which were paid for in cash.
“One thing I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, chair, all those installations were paid for by Bosasa operations and not by a director. The whole thing was kept away from me by Papa Leshabane (Bosasa director) that had arranged for a site visit to a property in Boksburg. The first installation that they did was they appointed a sub-contractor to come and do the installations. I did not know about this until the sub-contractor had to be paid,” said Agrizzi.
“So I refused to sign this off because it was sub-contractor. Only after I really started scratching did Papa Leshabane tell me that they had arranged this with Gavin Watson. I confronted Gavin, who admitted it. I then got Richard Le Roux to finish off with the job and everything was paid in cash,” he said.
Agrizzi said the entire project for Matashe’s three properties could be estimated at around R650 000.
“There was no way that Papa Leshabane could have made a donation of that amount. The actual installations for instance in Cala (Eastern Cape) cost R140 000 and that’s basic installation. The installations cost about R650 000,” said Agrizzi.
The former right-hand man to Bosasa boss Gavin Watson said when he questioned why the company was funding the project, Watson told him Mantashe was important as the secretary general of the ANC.
Earlier, Agrizzi also used his testimony to dismiss denials by former South African Airways (SAA) board chairperson Dud Myeni. Myeni was interviewed on eNCA and denied the accusations by Agrizzi. She said she only visited Bosasa’s office once, while on a tour with former president Jacob Zuma.
Agrizzi said Myeni was lying as he had met her five times while he still worked for Bosasa. He said Myeni had suggested during one of the meetings that Bosasa could get involved in a catering contract with SAA.