Former Bosasa COO explains why he took so long to come clean

The former chief operating officer of the controversial Bosasa company, Angelo Agrizzi, who was employed at the company from 1999 to December 15 2016, testified at the commission of inquiry into state capture on Wednesday.

In his testimony before the adjournment at 1pm, Agrizzi spoke about him being “exposed to numerous corrupt activities” during his period of employment at Bosasa, which he said he, unfortunately, did not report at that stage.

Agrizzi explained why he had taken the decision to cooperate with the commission and law enforcement agencies though he had remained silent for a prolonged period of time.

“I’d become blunt in understanding what was happening at this stage, I’d become very accepting, and unfortunately it happens to a lot of people,” Agrizzi said.

He further urged others with evidence of state capture and similar transgressions, in particular, those within Bosasa, “to start coming forward as well”.

“So, I was blunt, I kept quiet, and I should have exposed unlawful activities from day one,” Agrizzi said.

Agrizzi said he had taken a long time to come forward with the evidence because he had become “engrossed with that cult” and started to believe that what was happening was “actually right”.

“I had a near death experience where I was admitted to hospital and I had a tumour in my heart, I was in a coma and when I came out of the coma, myself and my family had made a conscious decision that we would clean up where we had made mistakes before,” Agrizzi said.

His testimony is expected to implicate 38 individuals who are said to be government officials and politicians.

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