Newsflash: Agrizzi says he met Dudu Myeni five times, once over SAA catering deal

Testifying before the State Capture Commission on Friday, Angelo Agrizzi, Bosasa's former COO said he had accompanied his former boss, Gavin Watson, to a meeting with Dudu Myeni during which there was a discussion about Bosasa taking over a security tender as well as a catering contract.

“She had arranged the meeting for us to meet Nico Bezuidenhout. At the meeting we discussed a security services tender, and to look at Bosasa taking over that and the catering contracts at SAA.”

Agrizzi who previously testified about R300,000 in monthly payments allegedly handed to the former SAA chairperson, said he didn’t like the idea of doing business with SAA.

He told Watson he didn’t see money in the deals. “Funny enough, he agreed.”

But the real reason, he told the Commission, was that he wanted to stay as far away as possible from SAA, Myeni and the Jacob Zuma Foundation which she chairs.

Myeni, he previously testified, was the recipient of a Louis Vuitton handbag courtesy of Bosasa, stuffed with R300,000 in cash.

Agrizzi reconfirmed that his understanding of the R300,000 payments to Myeni was for “onward” payment to the Jacob Zuma Foundation.

“I found this strange because why would the foundation take cash?”

Following his initial testimony in January, Agrizzi said he saw Myeni on television, in an interview with eNCA, saying she had only ever visited Bosasa once – when she accompanied former President Jacob Zuma on a tour of the company’s facilities.

“This is not true, there were meetings held on a few occasions,” said Agrizzi.

He then told the Commission that in addition to the SAA-linked meeting, and another at the Pretoria Sheraton Hotel where she allegedly slipped him confidential Hawks and NPA documents relating to a criminal investigation into the company, he had met her a different time to discuss a “fracking” transaction.

His last encounter was in August 2016 shortly after he resigned from Bosasa.

He was travelling from Johannesburg to Durban with his wife and once he was seated in a window seat on row two, Myeni allegedly also arrived on the plane.

She sat directly in front of him. “She turned around and greeted us.”

Agrizzi said he was suspicious about her having been on the plane because of her ties to Watson as he had just resigned and implied that he had tried to avoid her as a result.

“I was aloof with her,” he said.

“Then, straight out she asked me, ‘what’s wrong with you'?”

He said Myeni didn’t know he had resigned.

Myeni, one of Zuma’s powerful allies, may well bring an application to cross examine Agrizzi in the future – but whether she will be prepared to subject herself to interrogation by the Commission’s own legal team, a condition for cross examination by implicated parties, remains to be seen.

Agrizzi’s testimony continues. DM