Agrizzi warns media not to be taken in by ‘fake Bosasa emails’ with his name on them

Former Bosasa chief operating officer Angelo Agrizzi said on Wednesday the email must form part of an ongoing disinformation campaign around Bosasa to blur fact from fiction and cast doubts on him.

He suggested that Bosasa itself could be behind the disinformation.

Agrizzi told The Citizen following his ongoing testimony at the state capture commission that he was concerned he’d not been asked to comment on the matter before a recent TimesLive report suggested that Agrizzi had put pressure on Bosasa to donate to a crowdfunding effort to help the so-called SABC 8 group of journalists in 2016.

Unnamed sources told the website that a donation of R100,000 was made after the then chief operating officer, Agrizzi, put “everyone under pressure” to make a “strategic” donation to the SA National Editors’ Forum’s fund for the SABC 8.

“Trust me this is probably going to be the best ROI (return on investment) we’ve ever had with donations,” he allegedly wrote in an email dated July 22 2016 to fellow employees.

TimesLive, however, reported they were not able to trace the funds back to Bosasa, despite consulting sources close to the story.

Agrizzi, though, says he never wrote any email of the sort.

“The story regarding an email is quite simply false and similar to the Johan Booysen [discredited Cato Mano death squad] matter.

“I was not given the opportunity to respond or comment and the matter is exacerbated by the fact that TimesLive relied on a manufactured email from Bosasa.”

He also hit out at the Sunday Times for what he says is an upcoming story they are working on about allegations that he may be attempting to leave the country, and said such reports were compromising his family’s safety. He said he has no intentions of leaving.

The SABC 8 group included past and present employees of the SABC – Suna Venter (who passed on in 2017), Foeta Krige, Krivani Pillay, Thandeka Gqubule, Busisiwe Ntuli, Lukhanyo Calata, Vuyo Mvoko, and Jacques Steenkamp – who had an employment dispute with the public broadcaster after they defied their then COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s instruction to not show violent service delivery protests on any of the SABC’s platforms.

The SABC 8 have also collectively denied the donation claim, stating: “We do not know who the donors were in the crowdfunding initiative. Some identified themselves and some remained anonymous.”

They went on to add that “it is interesting to note that the same Bosasa that apparently funded us is the same one that paid the legal costs for Hlaudi Motsoeneng, against whom we fought to save a public asset from further capture”.

“We remain steadfast and committed and we will not be swayed by the purveyors of fake news and lies.”

Sanef has also said they could trace no evidence that Bosasa or anyone connected to the company had donated to them.

“We have had the opportunity to go through every of the 394 donations made in July 2016 to the cause and could not find any donation from Bosasa and/or a person connected to Bosasa or a donation for R100,000,” Sanef said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Sanef would like to reiterate that no donations were solicited from anyone for this cause and that the eight SABC journalists were never involved in or had access to the identities of the donors.”

The forum asked TimesLive for proof of the alleged payment.

Agrizzi concluded that he has become “fully committed to assisting South Africa in ridding the country of the scourge of corruption and will remain to testify in the commission on state capture as well as assist authorities in unveiling further corruption and abuse of state funds”.

“I have further embarked on a process to make declarations to Sars (the SA Revenue Service) on large-scale tax fraud that has cost the country a fortune in tax evasion.”

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