It seems parliament has done nothing to investigate alleged Bosasa payments to long-standing ANC MP Vincent Smith – nearly five months after he admitted to receiving a R671,000 “loan” from the company’s former chief operating officer, Angelo Agrizzi.
Agrizzi vehemently denies that the money was given as a loan, and on Monday testified that it was part of a corrupt scheme to capture key parliamentary officials.
When Business Day on Monday contacted one of the co-chairs of parliament’s joint ethics committee, Humphrey Maxhegwana, to establish what progress had been made in investigating Smith, he said he knew nothing about any probe.
Maxhegwana said he was surprised that he was being asked about the complaint against Smith as “I am not involved with that”.
DA MP John Steenhuisen confirmed to Business Day that he had laid a complaint about Smith’s admission that he had received money from Bosasa, and his alleged failure to declare receiving this money, in September last year.
“It is simply staggering that some five months after I lodged a complaint with the ethics committee in the Vincent Smith matter that the chairperson is not even aware of it,” said Steenhuisen.
“It is little wonder we are facing a scourge of corruption and dirty dealings by politicians like Smith when there is a complete absence of a consequence for those accused of wrongdoing … it is crucial that parliament stops dragging its feet on this issue.”
Former Bosasa chief operating officer Angelo Agrizzi testified on Monday that Smith had received multiple payments of R45,000 and later R100,000 in exchange for acting in Bosasa’s interests during parliament's correctional services portfolio committee meetings.
Smith served as chair of the portfolio committee on correctional services and had been one of Bosasa’s most voracious critics. But, according to Agrizzi, he later received monthly bribes from the company’s CEO, Gavin Watson, to play down negative media attention on Bosasa’s government contracts.
That negative media attention had intensified after the contents of a damning 2009 Special Investigating Unit report on correctional services, implicating Bosasa in tender rigging, were released in the media by 2010.
“A decision was made that the parliamentary committee would manage the negative impact of the media coverage on Bosasa so that it wouldn’t impact on future business. It was agreed that MPs Vincent Smith, Vincent Magagula and Winnie Ngwenya would receive monthly cash payments to ensure an end to negative media coverage of Bosasa’s dealings with correctional services,” Agrizzi said.
Agrizzi denied Smith’s claims that the R671,000 he received from 2015 to 2016 was a “personal loan”. He claimed that Smith had asked him for a loan after he had left Bosasa in 2016, a request he had refused.
Speaking to Business Day on Monday, Smith declined to comment on the evidence against him.
“At this point I will get advice before I comment on any matter.”
Asked about the status of the complaint lodged against him with the ethics committee, he responded: “The matter is before the ethics committee and is not yet finalised as far as I am aware.”
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