Bosasa Operations, a diversified BEE company with state contracts worth more than R2-billion, has been threatened with an application for liquidation by a small building contractor.
Cross Atlantic Properties 39 (CAP) says the controversial outfit owes it more than R500 000 for work done at the home of Bosasa’s group operations coordinator, Angelo Agrizzi.
Bosasa’s lawyer has described the prospects of a liquidation application against the company as “ridiculous” and advised CAP to knock at the right door — that of Agrizzi himself.
Bosasa was forced into the spotlight last year when Beeld revealed that Sondolo IT, a company in the group, wrote large parts of a huge correctional services security tender that was subsequently awarded to it.
Beeld established that Sondolo’s shareholders include President Thabo Mbeki’s political adviser, Titus Mafolo, foreign affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa (who has subsequently relinquished his shares), former chair of the Strategic Fuel Fund Seth Phalatse and Bosasa CEO Gavin Watson.
It was reported that former prisons boss Linda Mti had a company registered for him by Bosasa’s company secretary, Tony Perry. Mti has since resigned and the Special Investigating Unit has launched a probe into the awarding of numerous multimillion-rand tenders by the correctional services department to Bosasa.
The company and its affiliates also benefit generously from other government departments. Home affairs recently came under fire from Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts for its expensive contract with Bosasa to run the Lindela repatriation centre in Krugersdorp.
Bosasa’s most recent dispute, however, has been with the relatively small CAP, a construction company contracted by Bosasa in March this year.
CAP’s owner, Jan Hoogendyk, says the arrangement with Bosasa was to perform building works “on an ad hoc basis” at various premises in Gauteng. These included renovations of about R1,4-million at Agrizzi’s house in the up-market Krugersdorp suburb, Rangeview.
“It was a demanding job. I had to commit all my resources to this project. But I was happy to do so because I got paid,” Hoogendyk says.
CAP was regularly paid from the account of Bosasa Operations for work done at Agrizzi’s private home. The Mail & Guardian is in possession of an email, dated May 28 sent by Agrizzi to Hoogendyk, in which he advises CAP to invoice Bosasa Operations and word the invoice as follows: “Maintenance and improvement of existing facilities Bosasa Operations (Pty) Ltd at Mogale City”.
By August more than R800 000 had been paid by Bosasa Operations for work done at Agrizzi’s home. Hoogendyk says relationships soured when Agrizzi “refused” to pay an agreed R290 000. He [Hoogendyk] pulled his workers from the site.
“Then one day I got a call from a staff member telling me there had been a takeover. Agrizzi and his wife were now paying my workers per day, although they were still using CAP’s equipment.”
When Hoogendyk’s equipment was eventually returned to him, it was “rusted and broken”. He is demanding R38 000 from Bosasa for this.
In a lawyer’s letter to Bosasa Hoogendyk’s attorney states that a Bosasa accountant told his client “that you [Bosasa] were not in a position to immediately pay the said amount as certain salaries and similar payments needed to be made”.
Bosasa’s lawyer, Christo van Wyk, denies that his client has cash flow problems and gives a different version of why Agrizzi, who is also his client, stopped paying CAP.
“The work wasn’t done properly, that’s why the payments were stopped. The amount [which Hoogendyk demands] is petty cash for Bosasa.” Van Wyk says Bosasa settled all the bills for work done by CAP at the group’s office park and that the dispute is between CAP and Agrizzi.
Initial payments made by Bosasa Operations would be deducted from Agrizzi’s performance bonus. “If there is a shortfall, Agrizzi will have to pay the money back.”
Bosasa isn’t scared of litigation and will defend any claim in court, Van Wyk says.