Bosasa: ANC members named in Zondo report NOT asked to step aside

If you’re expecting some of the ANC bigwigs implicated in the latest State Capture Commission report to step down from some of their official duties, don’t hold your breath. The third instalment of the report found that several party officials were bribed by the scandal-plagued company Bosasa, in exchange for ensuring that it had access to a string of lucrative government contracts.

From hundreds of thousands of rands in monthly cash payments, groceries and expensive alcohol, as well as security upgrades – these are just some of the “gratifications” that ANC Chairperson Gwede Mantashe, former president Jacob Zuma and ANC NEC member Nomvula Mokonyane are said to have received by Bosasa.

As expected, there have been calls for the ANC to act against its officials for their dealings with Bosasa, as found by the State Capture Commission report. The ANC says it has encouraged the disgraced members to approach the party’s Integrity Commission.

NO ANC OFFICIALS STEPPING ASIDE JUST YET

For now, Mokonyane and Mantashe can’t be forced to step aside, as per the ANC’s contentious policy, as they have not been formally charged – although the commission’s chairperson Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has recommended that they be investigated for corruption at Bosasa, at the very least.

The ANC has also encouraged those implicated to take the report on review, if they take issue with its contents. Mantashe recently announced he would do just that, claiming the report is based purely on assumptions. He also said he has no plans of stepping down from his posts – both in government and at Luthuli House.

“When there is no prima facie case and I step aside, then I am just impressing everybody else who wishes to see me stepping aside quicker. I will step aside when we move beyond this point,” he said.

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.