PE community in shock at tragic death of ‘doer’ Watson

The death of controversial facilities management company Bosasa CEO Gavin Watson in a car accident on his way out of OR Tambo International Airport yesterday morning was a great shock to the Port Elizabeth community.

Despite the recent controversies surrounding Watson, Port Elizabeth-based businessman and anti-apartheid activist Mkhuseli Jack remembered him fondly.

“Gavin was the most hardworking person I knew. His tragic death is a great shock to the PE community. Gavin was always a doer. He was not prone to long talks and theories,” said Jack.

He said together with his brothers, Watson broke the artificial divide of apartheid social engineering forcefully.

“He sacrificed the well-looked after rugby fields for the rugged, uneven, and thorn and stone-riddled township fields. Doing that landed them at the centre of SA’s confrontation for social justice, equality and freedom with the erstwhile rulers,” he explained.

Watson comes from a family of four boys – Daniel, Valence and Ronnie are his brothers – and grew up on a farm in the Eastern Cape.

His brother Daniel “Cheeky” who was selected as a wing for the Junior Springboks in 1976 and declined an invitation to participate in the trials for the 1976 senior Springbok team, is well-known in Port Elizabeth for standing up against apartheid.

He joined the Spring Rose Rugby Football Club in the black township of New Brighton.

The Watsons were subsequently threatened, ostracised and shot at. Their home was burned down in 1986.

Friends stopped visiting, either because they were being threatened by authorities, or because they disagreed with the Watsons’ political stance.

“Many people in our community admired them for the unpopular choices they took. Gavin was kind and he gave a lot to those who were needy.

“They helped students with bursaries, ex-political prisoners with desperately needed groceries and clothes. Gavin did a lot for the SA society,” said Jack.

INFO

The four Watson brothers – Daniel (Cheeky), Valence, Ronnie and Gavin – enjoyed the status of struggle icons in their home province, and became avid businessmen after the fall of apartheid.

• While Valence and Ronnie joined the Kebble mining enterprise, Gavin founded Bosasa, which won numerous government tenders related to prisons, transport and food.
• It is estimated Bosasa earned at least R12 billion from government business between 2004 and 2019.
• Watson’s younger brother, Daniel (Cheeky) was the former EP Rugby boss, who famously rejected playing for the Springboks, while his son Luke infamously said he wanted to vomit on the Springbok jersey.
• During testimony from Angelo Agrizzi at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, he detailed how the deeply religious Watson would open every morning meeting at Bosasa with prayer and scripture reading. This while the company was allegedly involved in numerous illicit activities.
• Former ANC treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize has confirmed that Bosasa donated generously to the ANC, with Agrizzi testifying how the company financed the luxurious lifestyles of high-ranking officials and former Cabinet members.

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