Former Bosasa chief operating officer Angelo Agrizzi was held at gunpoint today in Johannesburg.
Contacted for comment, he confirmed the incident but said that he had become “immune” to it, owing to having been hijacked a few times before.
He said that he doesn’t believe it was an ordinary crime. “The words uttered were ‘stop talking’,” he said, saying that he believed he had been targeted in a “shake-up and orchestrated warning” to stop testifying about state and corporate corruption.
The crime took place on William Nicol Road at 1.15pm. His bag was taken.
In CCTV footage sent to The Citizen, Agrizzi can be seen pulling up to a filling station in a BMW and an attendant begins to fill up his car. Within seconds a gang of armed men in balaclavas descend on the vehicle and appear to rob Agrizzi. They escape in another vehicle.
He drives off with the fuel cap still open, only to calmly return and get out of the car moments later, looking stunned.
Agrizzi said he hadn’t yet seen the footage himself, and asked to have it sent it to him. He hasn’t confirmed where exactly the scene took place. He is currently out on bail after being arrested and appearing in the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Court in a case related to a prisons tender given to Bosasa a decade ago.
“Well, many other threats have been making the rounds,” he said. “The truth is I actually drove off because I wanted to chase after them. Then I decided not to, besides there wouldn’t be any point. The messages have been getting across.
“Do you think for a minute that certain people aren’t going to try absolutely everything to stop me, arrest me, and so on?”
The businessman has become a household name since delivering explosive testimony this year into state capture at the Zondo commission.
He implicated numerous politicians in accepting bribes in return for giving contracts to Bosasa.
“And where is all the protection? Yet [Gwede] Mantashe, [Vincent] Smith, [Nomvula] Mokonyane, [Thabang] Makwetla, are all walking free. And the Watsons are walking free. No, really?” he said, mentioning several individuals that he and other Bosasa seniors had implicated in their testimony.
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