Why the Watsons and Bosasa kept their silence

New evidence that emerged this week from the files of late Bosasa CEO Gavin Watson offers a vastly different side of the story in the Bosasa scandal, and if true could mean former Bosasa COO Angelo Agrizzi may have perjured himself at the commission of inquiry into state capture.

The new evidence is, according to late Bosasa CEO Gavin Watson’s nephew Jared, part of what Gavin would have presented to an SA Revenue Service (Sars) inquiry into his tax affairs if he had not died in a mysterious car crash on the morning of August 26.

According to Jared, a chartered accountant, Gavin had already appeared before the inquiry and was cooperating with it in an effort to clear his name.

Agrizzi and his cohorts, at the start of 2019, offered shocking revelations about how Bosasa had allegedly bribed its way into winning multibillion-rand contracts from the ANC government. The reputation of the company, with its about 4,500 employees, was effectively destroyed, and Bosasa went into voluntary liquidation after its banks refused to hold its accounts any more.

When asked why Watson, or the company, had not immediately rushed to the commission to offer their side of the story, Jared Watson told The Citizen: “They thought it was already too late.”

According to Jared, they found out about Agrizzi’s testimony on the same day, January 16, everyone else did. They turned on their TVs and saw Agrizzi “spilling the beans” to Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.

Jared claims Watson and Bosasa’s lawyers advised the company not to say anything in response. The effect of this was that the narrative offered by Agrizzi, former Bosasa chief financial officer Andries van Tonder, former fleet manager Frans Vorster and former auditor Peet Venter went unchallenged – until now.

When asked to give details on what it was Agrizzi had testified about that wasn’t true, Jared said: “It would be easier, and quicker, to try to find the few things he said that actually were true.”

Death threats and accusations of deception

The Watson file and a list explaining, line by line, with documentary evidence in each case, where Agrizzi allegedly deceived the commission and perjured himself in his testimony are now in the public domain after being uploaded by Alec Hogg from BizNews, and can be accessed here.

Jared Watson is not, officially, the family spokesperson, though he has effectively become that.

Talking to him, it seems clear that either Bosasa or the Watson family themselves are mulling the possibility of a civil damages suit for the destruction of Bosasa and the family’s reputation.

The Watsons feel their rights were infringed by their not having been contacted in advance by the commission to be informed they would be implicated, and to prepare a response in turn.

“You are supposed to receive a 3.3 notification at least two weeks before your name is mentioned,” said Watson.

They are not the only ones who argue that the commission did not respect its own rules in dealing with how Bosasa was implicated by Agrizzi, with Armscor’s Kevin Wakeford having alleged the same thing earlier this year.

The prospects of such a lawsuit against the commission – if it ever materialises at all – are unclear, since there has been no legal precedent for it, or something like it, in South Africa. If the state loses the case, taxpayers would have to foot the bill.

Agrizzi told the commission that he feared for his life and that Gavin Watson and others in Bosasa allegedly wanted him dead and had the ability to kill him. He even submitted an affidavit to the police about alleged threats to his life. The Citizen previously also reported how Agrizzi has used a voice clip of Bosasa chairman Joe Gumede warning about there being “dangerous people out there” as evidence of the threats he faced.

Presumably, on this basis, Agrizzi’s testimony was kept confidential and Bosasa never got wind of it until, in Jared’s words, “it was too late”.

Jared points out that other Bosasa witnesses had not claimed they were threatened with death, and yet 3.3 notices were not issued to Bosasa or the Watsons for their testimony either.

Additionally, former hitman Mikey Schultz came forward earlier this year to claim that Agrizzi once offered him R2 million to allegedly beat up and intimidate the Bosasa CEO to shake R10 million out of him. Schultz reportedly declined the job, raising questions about who was the real threat to whom.

Agrizzi this week did not want to comment on Schultz’s allegations, or the latest ones from the Watsons, explaining that his lawyer had asked him not to communicate with the media. Agrizzi still faces charges in a criminal case brought against him for his involvement in a R1.6 billion prisons tender given to Bosasa.

Extortion, hush money, or both?

He nevertheless on Tuesday dismissed the new evidence from the Watsons, despite its detail, and has questioned why the family did not present any of this information and version of events to the state capture commission, instead choosing to do it through the media.

The Citizen first reported in January on how the Watsons have accused Agrizzi of trying to extort millions out of Gavin Watson and Bosasa in return for him not making damaging statements about the company or otherwise harming the firm.

The Watsons maintain Agrizzi first began to threaten the livelihood of Bosasa in around 2016 when he started his own companies, including one called Crearis, as a rival to Bosasa. He allegedly also threatened to join a competitor catering firm, the Compass Group, and take a major prison catering contract with him.

Agrizzi has previously denied this to The Citizen.

“That contract represented 60% of Bosasa’s revenue at the time,” said Jared, adding that his uncle reacted by initially acceding to Agrizzi’s demands.

The Watson evidence points to Agrizzi and Von Tonder being allowed to sign off between themselves on almost all financial transactions in the company from 2006 onwards, which the board rectified, according to Jared, by a resolution that Gavin Watson would have to countersign every transaction from 2017 on.

According to the new evidence, Agrizzi even pretended to be Watson at times by running an email account in his name.

The Watsons further claim that it was only in around 2017 that they came to realise the extent of the wealth Agrizzi had amassed during his nearly 20 years at Bosasa. They had hitherto apparently not known about the man’s Fourways mansion and other homes in SA, his “fleet of supercars, including five Ferraris”, his alleged art collection and supposed other properties in Italy.

Agrizzi, however, has told The Citizen that he “only” has one Ferrari, a 2000 model 360 Modena, has no properties in Italy, and that he’s not a fine art collector. In the Watson file, however, an email allegedly from him does reference four Ferraris, with another one, an “812 Superfast” supposedly on order.

Agrizzi told the Zondo commission that he was earning as much as R10 million a year at Bosasa, with annual bonuses of R5 million. According to the Watsons, this lucrative contract was only grudgingly signed off by Gavin Watson in an attempt to stop Agrizzi from taking the prisons catering tender to the Compass Group in 2016, when it was up for renewal.

A later “exit agreement” between Bosasa and Agrizzi in March 2017 was set to see him get a severance loan of R26 million, a R150,000 monthly retainer to “consult Gavin Watson personally on business issues” and other benefits in what can be likened to what became a messy divorce settlement agreement between Agrizzi and the company – an agreement that appears to have later fallen apart acrimoniously.

The Watsons suggest it was never about conscience for Agrizzi, as he claims, but greed alone.

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