Bosasa paid R1.2m bribe for tender at Kimberley department of education – Agrizzi

Bosasa allegedly paid a bribe of R1.2 million to secure a tender to install CCTV and access control systems at the Northern Cape department of education (DoE) main building in Kimberley, heard the commission of inquiry into state capture on Friday.

The company’s former COO, Angelo Agrizzi, told the commission that one of the directors of Bosasa subsidiary GTS (previously known as Sondolo IT), Trevor Mathenjwa, who had close relations to former SAA chair Dudu Myeni, employed a technician at Sondolo IT.

The technician employed by Mathenjwa was Bheki Gina, whose sister held a portfolio within the department.

The department then awarded the more than R10 million contract to Sondolo IT without the tender process being followed, Agrizzi said, adding that the contract was made out to be an “emergency requirement”.

He told the commission that though he was “kept out of the loop” about this specific tender due to strained relations between himself and the company’s CEO, Gavin Watson, he came to know about it because he had to sign off on accounts and would at times make inquiries around it.

Agrizzi told the commission that he had wanted to axe Gina for underperformance but that Mathenjwa had approached him to convince him otherwise because Gina’s sister needed to be looked after.

Mathenjwa told Agrizzi that Gina’s sister had to be serviced with regular payments, Agrizzi said, a matter which the former COO of Bosasa said he would take up with the company’s CEO Gavin Watson.

However, he confirmed that a bribe of R1.25 million was paid for the contract and that the bribe money was either reflected as an admin or extraordinary fee.

The commission has adjourned and will resume at 2pm.

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