Angelo Agrizzi, Linda Mti charged for Bosasa corruption

Seven suspects, including former Bosasa chief operating officer Angelo Agrizzi and former prisons boss Linda Mti were charged with corruption, money laundering and fraud on Wednesday. 

The arrest of some of the accused, and the charges, follow a high-profile investigation into tenders awarded to Bosasa (now known as African Global Group) and its subsidiaries by the department of correctional services.

Also arrested were former correctional services chief financial officer Patrick Gillingham and former Bosasa chief financial officer Andries van Tonder.

African Global, IT company Sondolo and Phezulu fencing are also cited as accused in court papers.  

In 2009 the Special Investigating Unit handed over a report to the National Prosecuting Authority.

The report was in relation to four Bosasa contracts with the department of correctional services.

Although the SIU said in its report that Bosasa – and its boss Gavin Watson -  had bribed former commissioner Linda Mti and department CFO Patrick Gillingham, there has been no prosecution since the handing over of the report.

Former Bosasa COO Angelo Agrizzi, in January, testified for more than a week about corruption and bribes relating to the company’s contracts with the government.

He has told the commission that every contract between the state and Bosasa was tainted by bribery and corruption.

Agrizzi, last month,  told the Zondo commission into state capture how former department of correctional services (DCS) chief financial officer Patrick Gillingham allegedly manipulated procurement processes for a R106m television tender to be awarded to Sondolo.

According to Agrizzi, as well as a Special Investigating Unit report, the contract was awarded to Sondolo on March 3 2006.

Sondolo, a subsidiary of Bosasa, submitted an invoice 10 days later and the payment was processed on March 23 2006. 

Evidence leader advocate Paul Pretorius observed that this was "rapid" for a state contract of that amount.

Both Phezulu Fencing and Sondolo IT, which were awarded the tenders in 2006 for the upgrading of fencing and access control systems, are subsidiaries of Bosassa, which in 2011 was fingered by the Special Investigating Unit for allegedly bribing former national prisons boss Linda Mti.

Agrizzi also claimed that  Bosasa had bribed senior officials from the department of correctional services to secure lucrative contracts at prisons across the country.

He said Bosasa allegedly oversaw the construction and footed the bill for lavish houses built for Mti, who was the former head of safety and security in Nelson Mandela Bay.

Because of this, he said, Bosasa underhandedly landed a massive R486m contract for fencing at about 66 prisons in 2005, while Mti was commissioner at correctional services.