Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has admitted that she was one of the founders of Dyambu Holdings, later to become Bosasa, following explosive evidence this week at the commission of inquiry into state capture.
The controversial company’s former chief operations officer, Angelo Agrizzi, told the commission headed by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo that senior ANC leaders such as Mapisa-Nqakula and International Relations and Co-operation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, who are both members of the ANC's national executive committee, were among the shareholders of Dyambu Holdings.
Agrizzi said former national director of public prosecutions Vusi Pikoli’s wife, Girly Pikoli, was also a shareholder.
Mapisa-Nqakula’s spokesperson, Joy Peter, on Saturday said she was one of the co-founders of Dyambu Holdings but never received any dividends.
Peter said Mapisa-Nqakula declared her directorship in Parliament’s register of members’ interests.
The commission also heard that Bosasa boss Gavin Watson showered Sapo’s former head of security and Mapisa-Nqakula’s brother, Siviwe Mapisa, and the Post Office’s former chief executive, Maanda Manyatshe, with expensive, premier gifts including luxury Cartier and Monte Blanc pens as well as cufflinks and fake watches.
Documents obtained by Independent Media show that Mapisa has a trust that was registered in 2007 in which Watson’s brother, Valence Watson, is a trustee along with Armscor chief executive Kevin Wakeford.
Sisulu has denied she was ever a shareholder or director of Dyambu Holdings and has demanded that Agrizzi correct his statement in public and at the commission.
Controversial former SABC chief operating officer-turned-politician Hlaudi Motsoeneng has called on more people to pay for the legal fees of the “saviour of South Africa” directly to his lawyers just as Bosasa did in August 2017.
"Those who want to assist Hlaudi are welcome to assist Hlaudi,” he said, adding that everyone including journalists could assist.
Motsoeneng was among several high-profile individuals implicated by Agrizzi in his testimony at the commission of inquiry into state capture this week.
Agrizzi testified at the commission that Bosasa paid almost R1.2million in two tranches to settle Motsoeneng's legal bill in August 2017.
It emerged late last year in an affidavit by former Bosasa auditor and tax consultant Peet Viljoen that Walter Jele from the law firm that represented Motsoeneng, Zola Majavu Attorneys, sent an invoice for over R1.18m and the bill was settled through payment of R600 000 and just over R587 000 in two days in August 2017.
But Motsoeneng on Saturday dismissed the payments as a non-issue, saying that at the time he no longer worked for the SABC and that Bosasa never benefited at all during his time at the public broadcaster.
"There is nothing wrong about the payment, nothing untoward. They are just trying to discredit myself and my party,” he said.
Motsoeneng recently launched his own political party, the African Content Movement, which will contest the elections later this year.
He said that Bosasa should answer questions on why it paid his legal fees.
On Friday, Justice Zondo announced that the commission’s secretary, Dr Khotso de Wee, had voluntarily taken special leave following revelations by Agrizzi that he was allegedly paid a bribe by Bosasa to award the company a lucrative tender to provide security to courts across the country.
De Wee was the chief operations officer of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development in 2013 when the contract was awarded to Bosasa.
Justice Zondo will announce the commission’s acting secretary on Tuesday.