JOHANNESBURG - The chief executive of Armaments Corporation of South Africa (Armscor), Kevin Wakeford, on Monday took special leave following revelations that implicated him in the Bosasa corruption at the state capture commission of inquiry.
Wakeford has allegedly been implicated in the affidavit to the commission by whistleblower and former Bosasa chief executive, Angelo Agrizzi.
For the past four days, Agrizzi has been giving explosive details as to how Bosasa, now African Global Corporations, paid massive bribes to government ministers and members of parliament to win lucrative state tenders and help it hide corruption.
Armscor, the state-owned arms procurement agency for the Department of Defence, said that the board decided to grant Wakeford's request for a special leave until further notice, so that he could prepare his replying affidavit to the commission.
"In the light of the latest media developments where the CEO of Armscor, Mr Kevin Wakeford's name was mentioned in the list of individuals who are said to have benefited from the Bosasa Group, and subsequent confirmation with the commission of inquiry into state capture, the CEO has requested special leave," Armscor said in a statement.
"This is in order to allow him time to prepare his evidence for the commission. The board will meet in due course to finalise the interim arrangements."
Armscor said that it had not done any work for and had no known commercial contracts with Bosasa.
On Sunday, Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula admitted that she was one of the founders of Dyambu Holdings, Bosasa's parent company, but denied to ever receiving any dividends from her shareholding.