More witnesses corroborate Agrizzi testimony at Zondo commission
The commission of inquiry into state capture has heard more testimony corroborating parts of what former Bosasa executive Angelo Agrizzi told the public hearings.
The first witness on Tuesday was News24's editor-in-chief Adriaan Basson, who Agrizzi testified was one of the journalists who were on the company's list of targets for intimidation and threats.
Basson told the commission that in 2009, he received a series of emails from a source inside Bosasa, containing evidence of tender specifications and irregular tender deals between the company and the Department of Correctional Services.
He said shortly after publishing an article he started to receive threats.
"I started receiving calls on my cell phone, they came during the day and night, sometimes in the early hours of the morning. Sometimes the calls came from a number that was visible on my phone and there were also unknown numbers and landlines. The purpose of the calls or the message was always a person claiming they were a Bosasa employee, and that I am threatening their jobs and will cost them their jobs if I don't stop writing about Bosasa.”
He told the commission that, in some of the phone calls, he was accused of racism.
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Basson also mentioned a call from former journalist Benedicta Dube, who Agrizzi testified was hired by Bosasa executive Papa Leshabane alongside Stephen Laufer to target journalists.
He claims Dube called him with a number he later traced, pretending to want to assist him to find the bigger story in the Bosasa drama. Basson said it soon became clear that she was actually issuing a threat as she had all his personal information.
Basson denied allegations, contained a sound clip which has gone viral, that he frequented Agrizzi's home with his children. He said the only time he was at Agrizzi's home was when he found out he was going to “spill the beans” on Bosasa and saw this as an opportunity to get more information.
Another Witness, Gregory Lawrence, who is Managing Director of Africa Trade, told the commission he was the person who delivered cash to Bosasa offices at the instruction of his former boss Gregg Allin, who owns Equal Trade.
Agrizzi testified that Bosasa used several companies to launder money. The companies would issue Bosasa with fake invoices for goods which never get delivered, Bosasa would pay them through EFT and they would drop the money off in cash which would be placed in various vaults.
Lawrence told the commission he would deliver R200 000 rands in cash, in either plastics or boxes for several months. The highest amount he delivered was R1 million.
Two video clips were played, which he says he recorded on his phone during some of these deliveries as he was suspicious that something unlawful was happening, as Bosasa was not a bank.
In one of these videos, Bosasa's executive Jaques van Zyl appears, according to Lawrence, van Zyl was his contact for these cash deliveries.
The commission also called to the witness stand, its lead investigator, Frank Dutton, who has been investigating matters related to Bosasa.
Dutton confirmed that former SAA chairperson, Dudu Myeni, checked into the Sheraton Hotel in Pretoria in September 2015, at the time Agrizzi testified, he met with her alongside his former boss, Gavin Watson.
Agrizzi told the commission they delivered a Louis Vuitton bag with R300 000 to Myeni on that day, who then showed them secret documents of a progress report from the SAPS to the National Prosecuting Authority on the Bosasa investigation.