File photo shows former Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane briefs media on agreements reached with certain municipalities to settle their outstanding water debt [Photo: GCIS]
State Capture: Mokonyane recommended for prosecution in Bosasa graft
Bosasa is said to have lavished former minister Nomvula Mokonyane with cash, groceries and expensive gifts for several years
File photo shows former Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane briefs media on agreements reached with certain municipalities to settle their outstanding water debt [Photo: GCIS]
The latest installment of the State Capture report has made damning findings against former minister Nomvula Mokonyane in her dubious dealings with the scandal-plagued company Bosasa.
The report was released by the Presidency on Tuesday evening, 1 March 2022.
When former Bosasa Chief Operations Officer (COO) Angelo Agrizzi testified before the State Capture Commission, he made jaw-dropping revelations of how the company, through its now late boss Gavin Watson, bribed government officials and ANC leaders, to receive lucrative contracts.
Agrizzi estimates that Bosasa scored more than R2 billion in government contracts and paid out as much as R75 million in bribes, between 2000 and 2016.
State Capture report – how exactly is Nomvula Mokonyane involved?
Former minister Nomvula Mokonyane has featured quite prominently in the Bosasa corruption saga, with Agrizzi alleging that she received cash payments to the tune of R50 000 every month. While Mokonyane has denied ever receiving money, Agrizzi has testified that he was present on at least two occasions when this actually happened at Watson’s home.
In the State Capture report, acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has recommended that criminal charges be pursued against Mokonyane.
In addition to cash payments, Bosasa is said to have lavished her with all kinds of gifts, including groceries and alcohol for Christmas and even footed the bill for her 40th birthday. Mokonyane’s personal assistant admitted to this, but said the groceries were for poor community members.
But Zondo says the fact that the groceries included expensive wine and liquor suggests that the grocery items were not for poor communities but for Mokonyane and her family.
“The reason she denied them is because she knew it was inappropriate for her to have allowed this to happen. Agrizzi had no reason to falsely implicate Mokonyane in wrongdoing. Mokonyane failed to advance any convincing reason why Agrizzi would have decided to falsely implicate her in wrongdoing,”
Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo
“There would have been no reason for her to deny that Bosasa used to buy such groceries and deliver them to her home, because she would have been told by Bosasa about them and she would have made arrangements for the delivery of the groceries to the poor communities”
Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo
