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- Angelo Agrizzi’s former personal assistant says he was asked to send birthday baskets to former minister Nomvula Mokonyane and his personal assistant.
- Gina Pieters testified before the state’s arrest commission of inquiry.
- Last year, Agrizzi alleged that Mokonyane received R50,000 a month in cash from Bosasa, as well as gifts, including meat and expensive alcohol, for his family.
The personal assistant (PA) of the former Bosasa COO Angelo Agrizzi told the state’s capture inquiry commission that he used to send birthday baskets to former Minister Nomvula Mokonyane and his assistant, Sandy Thomas.
Gina Pieters appeared before the commission on Wednesday morning.
He was PA of Agrizzi from May 2004 to February 2017.
She told the chairman of the commission, Supreme Court Vice President Raymond Zondo, that Agrizzi had asked her to send the baskets to Mokonyane and Thomas.
Pieters said he dealt directly with Thomas, who told him not to send the gifts to the office, but to his physical address.
READ | Mokonyane’s birthday party: Bosasa spent cash for 174 guests, guesthouse owner confirms to Zondo
He said he started shipping the baskets from 2010, but added that it could have been earlier.
“That was one occasion and then a few months later, a year later they asked me to send the baskets again. [and] from then on, I saved the details when something became commonplace, I kept the details on my phone with an address, “he said.
Pieters also read an email he wrote to the procurement department, asking them to help him with R1 500 worth of birthday baskets.
The baskets were sent to Mokonyane and Thomas, he said.
He also said in the emails that he had told officials not to make any reference to Bosasa on the birthday cards.
When asked whose idea was to state that they should not refer to Bosasa, Pieters said: “Mr. Agrizzi used to ask me to do it when things were confidential and there should be no link to Bosasa preferably. So that’s why he would have asked me to do that and that’s why I put it in bold, so that he couldn’t implicate them, link them in an unfavorable way to Bosasa. “
Pieters also told Zondo about an email he sent to the procurement department asking them to organize a “ladies basket” worth R700 that had to be delivered to Thomas.
He asked them to write a “get well soon” message on the card, stating that it was from Agrizzi.
“Mr. Agrizzi called me and told me that Sandy is at the hospital, please contact her and send her a package,” he said.
Thomas says he can’t remember
On Monday, Thomas told the commission that the only time she remembered speaking with the former chief operating officer was when he contacted her. But she was ill at the time, so she referred him to a colleague. She didn’t know what he wanted, News24 previously reported.
She was unable to confirm that she and Mokonyane received “women’s baskets” worth R1 500 each for their one-year birthdays, which were in the same month.
Thomas said that she would have been at work and would not have signed for the basket, which she did not recall receiving.
However, he did not deny that he could have received a basket that is not a gift of good health from Bosasa, but instead maintained that he could not remember.
Thomas admitted that they would call her and asked what kind of gift the minister would like, but never asked if Mokonyane received the aforementioned basket.
“Those are surprises. I can’t spoil the surprise,” Thomas said when asked if Mokonyane had received a gift from Watson or Agrizzi.
During her testimony last year, Agrizzi alleged that the former minister received R50,000 per month in cash from Bosasa and that she had received gifts, including meat and expensive alcohol, for her family.
However, during her testimony, Mokonyane repeatedly said that the accusations that Agrizzi made against her were extremely defamatory and full of contradictions.
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