Former ANC MP Vincent Smith, once regarded as one of the country’s most dedicated parliamentarians, has appeared in court on charges of corruption and fraud, in the second major case to emerge from evidence led at the Zondo inquiry.
Smith will face prosecution with former Bosasa COO Angelo Agrizzi, the man responsible for revealing how the MP, who once served as chair of the correctional services parliamentary committee that monitored Bosasa’s management of SA’s prisons, allegedly accepted bribes from the facilities management company.
Bosasa, which was headed by the late Gavin Watson, was awarded multiple lucrative tenders from the department of correctional services, which amounted to billions of rand. But, from as early as 2009, the parliamentary committee Smith chaired was allegedly aware that the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) was probing evidence of serious corruption against the company.
Agrizzi did not appear with Smith in the Palmridge Commercial Crimes Court on Thursday morning, as he is understood to be unwell. Smith was granted R30,000 bail after the state indicated that it would not oppose bail. He will be back in court on October 14.
The charges against Smith relate to evidence that he accepted two payments from Bosasa, totalling R671,000, in 2015 and 2016. Smith told the Zondo inquiry last month that the money was a personal loan from Agrizzi for his daughter’s university fees, but Agrizzi has denied this.
According to a charge sheet seen by Business Day, the amounts were paid into Smith’s bank account by Bosasa (later trading as African Global Operations) through a company called Euro Blitz. Euro Blitz received payments from Jacques van Zyl, an employee of the company, and Christo van Wyk, an attorney who was holding the funds of African Global Operations in a trust account.
The payments were made under the heading “car accident settlement”.
The state further alleges that Bosasa also installed a “full electric fence and full internet protocol-based system to the total value of R200,000” at Smith’s home.
“The gratifications created a situation in which [Smith] was indebted to Bosasa and/or [Agrizzi] and/or Gavin Watson and thereby induced [Smith] to use his position in parliament to act in the interest of Bosasa and/or [Agrizzi] and/or Gavin Watson,” the state contends.
Smith, the prosecution states, “was initially concerned about the SIU investigation into the department of correctional services tender fraud and expressed horror at the findings presented to the portfolio committee on correctional services (PCCS) by then head of the SIU, Willie Hofmeyr.
“He was present in committee meetings where it was stated that Bosasa was implicated in the SIU’s report and he committed on behalf of the PCCS to investigate further once the report was finalised and to consider the relevance of the findings to continued contracts between Bosasa and the department.
“Notwithstanding the SIU recommendations, the contracts between Bosasa and the department continued until the last one of them was cancelled in February 2019 after the said company had notified the department of its intention to apply for voluntary liquidation.
“While the SIU investigation, as well as a number of press reports calling for the government to act against Bosasa, created pressure on parliamentarians to fulfil their oversight role and scrutinise the actions of the department, [Smith], despite his initial critical stance towards the department and its relationship with Bosasa, did little to hold the department accountable for its ongoing relationship with Bosasa.”
In a lengthy and extremely detailed indictment, the state then sets out specifically how Smith ensured that Bosasa’s contracts with the department of correctional services remained in place through complete inaction.
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