Andries Van Tonder who has already been implicated in the damning testimony of Bosasa chief operating officer Angelo Agrizzi began his testimony on Tuesday.
The Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture continues on Wednesday, with another Bosasa whistleblower set to take the stand — the company’s former chief financial officer Andries van Tonder.
Van Tonder — who has already been implicated in the damning testimony of Bosasa chief operating officer Angelo Agrizzi — began his testimony on Tuesday, detailing what he alleges was a climate of fear at the company.
Van Tonder, like Agrizzi, painted a picture of a company run by a charismatic but dangerous leader. Bosasa’s politically connected chief executive, Gavin Watson, would victimise his employees and make life unbearable if they did not toe the line, Van Tonder alleged.
“I was fearful of Gavin Watson. And I am still very fearful of Gavin Watson. Gavin Watson is connected to very powerful people, right up to the highest levels of government. Some of those people visited Bosasa,” Van Tonder testified.
Van Tonder told the commission he was initially very close to Watson. “He would make me feel important,” Van Tonder said, adding that Watson would often take him along to meetings and introduce him as an important person in the company.
But their relationship slowly deteriorated, Van Tonder said.
One breaking point in their relationship came when Van Tonder stopped attending the company prayer meetings led by Watson.
During his testimony, Agrizzi also spoke about these prayer meetings, which he said started to resemble a cult. “I believe, I really do, that it was sincere … but it became kind of a cult … But quite simply it was a mockery,” he tearfully told the commission.
Watson would invite pastors and prophets to attend these meetings, Agrizzi said in his earlier testimony.
Van Tonder said he began to view these prayer meetings “as a tool that Mr Gavin Watson used to determine people’s loyalty to him”.
He also told the commission about how, after he helped Bosasa emerge untarnished from a 2015 South African Revenue Service probe, Watson began to sideline him in the company.
Van Tonder confirmed that they had made misrepresentations to Sars to get a favourable ruling.
According to Van Tonder, after the investigation, Watson prevented him from fulfilling his functions as Bosasa’s CFO. Van Tonder said he no longer had access to financial information and was not allowed to communicate with financial institutions.
Van Tonder told the commission Watson asked him to vacate his office and move to the copper plant across the road. “He [Watson] was setting me up for failure,” he said.
It was as if he had “reached his expiry date”, Van Tonder explained.
Van Tonder was the person who clandestinely recorded the infamous video of Watson and Bosasa directors Joe Gumede and Papa Leshabane sorting large amounts of alleged bribe money in one of Bosasa’s vaults.
He did so at Agrizzi’s behest, propping up his cellphone in his top left-hand pocket to capture the activity.
According to Van Tonder, Agrizzi asked him to take the video when he became aware that Watson wanted to pin all the corrupt activities on him.
The camera went in and out of focus, because he was “extremely nervous”, Van Tonder said.