How Bosasa’s Watson evaded SIU attention

Despite having been implicated as the brains behind corruption, money laundering and malfeasance that involved the awarding of tenders worth more than R1.5 billion to Bosasa by the department of correctional services (DCS), there was a lack of material evidence fingering the facilities management company boss, Gavin Watson, in a damning 2009 Special Investigating Unit (SIU) report.

The Commission of Inquiry into State Capture chair, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, yesterday listened to Clinton Oellerman, former SIU lead investigator into the Bosasa scandal, explain that Watson was never mentioned in the report “because we never had an opportunity to interview him and other Bosasa executives”.

Former Bosasa chief operating officer Angelo Agrizzi, chief financial officer (CFO) Andries van Tonder, staffer Frans Vorster, former DCS national commissioner Linda Mti and former DCS CFO Patrick Gillingham were recently arrested and appeared in court based on the SIU report submitted to the NPA 10 years ago.

Oellerman said the 2009 court interdict brought by Bosasa challenging the investigation “dealt a blow to the probe”.

“The interdict made it impossible for us to interview Mr Watson and other executives – something which led to him not to be mentioned in the SIU report.”

On why the SIU failed to pursue Watson, despite a mountain of evidence presented by Agrizzi, Oellerman said: “We were unable to find material evidence on Mr Watson, rendering what has been told to us as hearsay evidence.

“We found no signature or e-mail sent by him. He kept his nose out of the evidence chain, with no direct evidence linking him. Had we not been interdicted, we could have interviewed him and other Bosasa executives.”

Oellerman also related several difficulties his team of eight investigators encountered when handling the Bosasa probe:

• Former national director of public prosecutions (NDPP) Menzi Simelane being critical of the SIU investigation into Bosasa, which he described as “a witch-hunt”. Based on the SIU investigation, the NPA’s responsibility was to ensure that charges were brought against Bosasa and DCS officials.
• The presidential proclamation, which set out terms of reference and parameters to investigate Bosasa, was only limited to the kitchen, access control, fencing and television tenders the DCS awarded to the company. Despite being aware of significant evidence that Bosasa siphoned off billions in government tenders from Airports Company of South Africa and the department of home affairs, the SIU investigation team, which began in 2007, had no wider mandate.
• Leaking of sensitive information to Bosasa executives, which covered progress in the SIU probe, a ministerial briefing minute and plans to conduct a search and seizure operation, seriously compromised the investigation.
• The Bosasa litigation to stop further investigation that would have included Watson, led to the SIU reaching an agreement with Bosasa lawyers “not to continue while there was an interdict”.

During his reign as NDPP, Simelane in 2010, punched holes in the SIU investigation, saying it was “a political vendetta”.

According to minutes of a ministerial meeting attended by former correctional services minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and former justice minister Jeff Radebe, Simelane rubbished the SIU investigation when he gave a presentation.

The focus on Bosasa continues today at the inquiry.

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