Acting chief justice Raymond Zondo believes former president Jacob Zuma, mineral resources & energy minister Gwede Mantashe and former Gauteng premier Nomvula Mokonyane have a case to answer on state capture.
In delivering the third instalment of the state capture report, Zondo has found that all three — as well as the governing ANC — benefited financially from now defunct security company Bosasa in exchange for government tenders and favours, and has recommended some criminal prosecutions.
On Zuma, Zondo said that he be investigated for possible corruption for “accepting gratifications from Bosasa”, a company that won lucrative security tenders from state departments and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) such as the SA Post Office and Airports Company SA. This includes Zuma’s lavish birthday parties sponsored by the company as well as alleged payments to the Jacob Zuma Foundation.
Zondo has referred Mantashe for investigation over suspected corruption linked to Bosasa’s security upgrades to his Eastern Cape home. Mantashe was the ANC’s secretary-general when he testified at the commission about the sponsored benefits.
Zondo found “no lawful authority” for the upgrades and no receipts were forthcoming.
On Mokonyane, Zondo found that she played an integral role in the relationship between the ANC and Bosasa, which emerged as one of the main players in the state capture project after the Guptas whose close ties to Zuma prompted the inquiry.
Zondo found that because of Bosasa’s modus operandi, which involved bribing senior government officials in exchange for tenders, it would not have been able to achieve its business objectives if the ANC was not in power.
“One [can] merely consider the catastrophic consequences for Bosasa if the ANC were to be booted out of power,” Zondo said in the report.
Despite reports initially saying that Zondo would include a volume on the now-defunct Bosasa, along with sections focused on two audits in the Free State and Eskom the ultimate third tranche released by the presidency late on Tuesday night only looked into Bosasa’s role.
In early 2019, former COO Angelo Agrizzi began what became some of the most prominent evidence at the inquiry, implicating senior cabinet members and ANC top brass in allegations of state capture, fraud and corruption. Bosasa began its profitable relationship with government by providing fencing and other services to the prisons department.
At the height of the company’s success, it was drafting government tender documents to its own specifications and doling out cash bribes by the millions. Footage which Agrizzi supplied to the commission, taken inside the company’s premises, showed Bosasa’s CEO Gavin Watson counting out cash for bribes. Agrizzi told Zondo the money was called “bread” which was kept in a walk-in safe dubbed “the oven” and it was laundered through businesses including a liquor outlet.
The latest submission was released the same day advocate Andrea Johnson took the helm of the prosecuting authority’s Investigating Directorate (ID). On Monday night, Ramaphosa announced Johnson as the new head of the Investigating Directorate (ID) of the prosecuting authority. Johnson takes over from advocate Hermione Cronje, who resigned in December.
Ramaphosa established the ID in April 2019 and the entity has a lifespan of five years. While it was created to target state capture cases, the ID is yet to conclude a single prominent case.
“Advocate Andrea Johnson will be expected to lead the ID into the next phase of its work as the people of SA look to the criminal justice system to bring those responsible for state capture and corruption to book‚” Ramaphosa said on Monday.
Johnson and the ID are sure to pore over the latest submission. It supplements existing findings and recommendations Zondo reached after almost four years of the inquiry’s work.
Zuma and former SAA board chair Dudu Myeni have already come under fire in Zondo’s reports. The commission also investigated various allegations against three Gupta brothers and their associates, such as Zuma’s son Duduzane.
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