Corruption knows no colour, says journalist Basson

“If there’s one really non-racial phenomenon in SA, it is corruption. Corruption really knows no colour.”        

Those were the words of award-winning journalist and News24 editor Adriaan Basson at the Blessed by Bosasa book launch at Forgarty’s Book shop in Walmer Park on Tuesday evening.

 Basson continued by saying that people tended to criticise journalists for only reporting on “black corruption”, adding that “every single corruption story has someone from each race”.

His latest book looks at the life and dealings of Port Elizabeth’s apartheid hero-turned-tenderpreneur Gavin Watson

In the book, Basson, who has been investigating Watson for 13 years, unpacks the alleged corruption of  Bosasa — corruption that has ultimately seen the company named at the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture.

Basson said when he finished the manuscript, he sent Watson a message requesting a meeting to discuss the book.

He sent the request on the Thursday before Watson died when his car crashed into a concrete pillar at the OR Tambo International Airport, in Johannesburg.

The crash  on August 26 took place the day before the 71-year-old Watson was due to face tough questions about his and his companies’ tax affairs at a SA Revenue Service (Sars) inquiry.

He had been subpoenaed to testify about whether he and his companies had given accurate information to Sars after the damaging testimony of former Bosasa COO Angelo Agrizzi at the Zondo commission.

Watson and Bosasa had been in the news for years, with allegations of underhand dealings to win lucrative government tenders dating back more than a decade.

The crash caused widespread speculation that Watson had faked his death.

However, that  is not something Basson believes.

 “I do believe he is dead.” 

Basson added the only question he had about the incident was what was Watson doing at the airport at the time.

Sharing his thoughts on the book, conversation starter Mpumelelo Mkhabela said he was fascinated by what he had read.

“I actually also participated, as a journalist in parliament in covering some of the rot, but like he [Basson] states in the book — nobody knew the extent of the rot,” Mkhabela said.

Mkhabela said when everyone else dropped the stories, Basson persisted, “almost as though his gods were telling him that there is a bigger story here and the culmination is what we have in our hands today”.

Basson said the book was one he had had to write.

“For many years I thought I was the only one — maybe two other people — interested in Bosasa.

“A colleague of mine who was sitting on the correctional services portfolio committee picked up this name — Bosasa — and  all its subsidiaries were  getting tender after tender.

“She phoned me one day while I was still working at Die Beeld.

  “I had just covered the Schabir Shaik trial and my interest was peeked at this unholy trinity of business, politicians and criminals coming together.

“She said I should start looking into the Watsons because they were winning all the tenders in prisons,” Basson said, adding that a few months later he linked Bosasa to Linda Mti, who was head of correctional services at the time.

The book explains how  Bosasa was born out of the ANC Women’s League 20 years ago to become an “ANC blesser”.

“I don’t know how many people are interested in prisons, but they took over the catering in prisons.

“Before Bosasa came into the picture in 2004, prisoners and warders were cooking and preparing food themselves as part of the rehabilitation process.

“So there was a lot of farms on our prisons, but that all changed,” Basson said.

Basson said though he had been working on the story for 13 years, it really struck him in February 2019,  when Agrizzi started testifying at the Zondo commission.

“It was literally jaw-dropping. I thought I knew a lot about Bosasa, but it turned out I only knew a tenth when he started talking,” Basson said, adding that that is how the book came to life.

Sadly, Basson said, there are no heroes in the book.

He said he had  tried to stay away from saying whether Watson was good or bad — adding that people would make up their own minds.

“This is a chapter of Watson’s life that I witnessed and documented.

“I’m sure his life was much more complicated,” he said.

Phiwe Nozewu, who attended the launch, said  he had noticed while reading the book that there seemed to be a lack of people being held accountable.

“A good example is where [former correctional services minister] Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula says she really did not know [what her bosses were doing],” he said.

Responding to this, Basson said that not holding people accountable was an “unfortunate illness of our time”.

“This has filtered down into society on all levels. It doesn’t happen in government, it doesn’t happen with the police and now it has filtered through to our schools and other structures of society.