ANC heavyweight Zizi Kodwa is one of many within the governing party to be implicated in state capture. (WIKUS DE WET/AFP via Getty Images)
My successful businessman friend gave me a R1-million loan when I was going through financial difficulties, and I bought an R890 000 Jeep vehicle with some of that money.
This was the testimony of Zizi Kodwa at the Zondo commission on Monday, when the deputy minister of state security was called in to respond to allegations that he had a corrupt relationship and received payments from former EOH executive, Jehan Mackay, from March 2015 to February 2016.
The allegations were made during testimony at the commission in May by ENSafrica Forensics’ managing director, Steven Powell. In May, Powell testified that luxury accommodation and payments worth more than R2-million were made to Kodwa, allegedly to curry favour from the then ANC national spokesperson for EOH to receive preferential treatment when it came to government procurement contracts.
The luxury gifts and accommodation Kodwa allegedly received from Mackay included a fortnight’s stay at a luxury guesthouse in Camps Bay, Cape Town, over the 2015 Christmas holiday, at a cost of R230 000, as well as two stays of two days each at a property in nearby Nettleton Drive, Clifton, at a cost of R50 000 a night.
In total, Powell testified, Kodwa received more than R650 000 of accommodation from Mackay.
But Kodwa refuted Powell’s allegations, saying that Mackay was his friend, who allowed the deputy minister to sleep at his properties whenever Kodwa was in Cape Town.
“I do confirm that I obtained a loan of [the] sum of R1-million from Mr Mackay; R890 000 of which went to the purchase of a Jeep vehicle … during June 2015. I confirm that this was a loan from my friend and no strings attached. I obtained it at a time of financial difficulty and I would not have been able to secure a bank loan.
“It was also flexible for me because Mackay indicated that I do not have to rush making payments until I felt my finances had been stabilised,” Kodwa said.
He added that he never asked Mackay for accommodation; nor did he ask that his bills be paid for him.
“My understanding was that he was not paying for the accommodation; I was using some of his properties.
“I saw how Mr Powell, very dramatic, where he tried to explain this luxury accommodation as though there is a certain Mr Kodwa who went on a binging extravaganza in Cape Town,” Kodwa asserted, calling Powell’s testimony “a political statement”.