How Agrizzi’s ‘little black book’ helped trace Bosasa corruption

If it were not for former Bosasa boss Angelo Agrizzi’s “little black book”, far more people may have escaped the Zondo Commission’s reach.

According to Agrizzi, when he was tasked with managing and filing records of the cash which went in and out of safes for “bribes and gratitude”, he would provide a code for payments and kept a record of that in his book.

On the surface, it seems as if it was money laundering on a grand scale, with the cost of the bribes worked into the contracts – all paid for by taxpayers.

Agrizzi said he would initially use pieces of paper and jot down the amounts using the codes he referred to but when he started losing those papers, he resorted to using A6 books.

Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has said he was directed to a little black book and he confirmed it reflected Agrizzi’s handwriting.

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“A page reflecting receipts of R3.2 million on 18 February 2016, R2.8 million on the 25 February totalling R6 million that was then in the safe(s). On the right-hand side was a list of persons to whom payments were made,” said Zondo.

Agrizzi noted that in his earlier black books, he would write out the names of the recipients but later was told to use codes. He said he would use shorthand to note the names and indicated the figures in the middle on the codes of each entry which showed the amounts paid.

He also explained that there was no principle followed in those codes. Zondo said the codes which were allocated to a payment would be written on the security bag.

Agrizzi provided the codes and the bags would then be returned to him with those exact codes written on top of the bags.

The report stated when Agrizzi was asked on amounts involved, he claimed it was between R4 million and R6 million paid per month.

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“The criterion was that the person supported Bosasa and ensured a tender would be awarded to Bosasa,” he said.

Agrizzi also recalled a counting list of 38 government employees and officials who received bribes on a regular basis.