Angelo Agrizzi being robbed.
An audio recording of a senior Bosasa executive discussing how there might be dire consequences for people who can’t be “trusted with information” has now emerged in the wake of Bosasa whistle-blower Angelo Agrizzi being held at gunpoint and robbed on Thursday.
Items worth an estimated R378,000, along with about R15,000 in cash, were taken in an incident captured on CCTV footage. Police have launched a manhunt for four suspects.
Angelo Agrizzi shortly after being robbed.
Agrizzi told The Citizen he felt it had been done as a “shake-up” to intimidate and silence him. “The words uttered were, ‘stop talking’,” he said.
“Do you think for a minute that certain people aren’t going to try absolutely everything to stop me, arrest me, and so on?” he said.
The businessman has become a household name since delivering explosive testimony this year into state capture at the Zondo commission. He implicated numerous politicians in accepting bribes in return for giving contracts to Bosasa.
“And where is all the protection? Yet [Gwede] Mantashe, [Vincent] Smith, [Nomvula] Mokonyane, [Thabang] Makwetla, are all walking free. And the Watsons are walking free. No, really?” he asked, mentioning several individuals that he and other Bosasa seniors had implicated in their testimony.
Now, an old audio recording of Bosasa chairman Johannes “Joe” Gumede appears to show him casually discussing one case of someone he knew who was shot and killed because he spoke about “confidential things” – since “there are consequences for that”.
In the recording, understood to be from about 2017, the executive relates a story of a man in a black empowerment deal who apparently didn’t keep to his side of a bargain “for being put there” and only looking after his own interests, which led to him being “shot in broad daylight” by “four guys” when he was “coming from the bank”.
WATCH: Angelo Agrizzi held at gunpoint
“The cops thought it was the Rolex Gang, but they didn’t even take anything,” says Gumede in the audio.
Agrizzi said the “Brian” being discussed by Gumede is lawyer Brian Biebuyck, who Gumede says was told to warn Agrizzi to keep quiet to avoid the same fate.
Gumede at one point explains that criminal gangs abuse the prison system to get away with murder. A killer would be let out of jail in the evening illegally, go off and kill a target in an organised hit, and then have “a nice alibi … he’s behind bars”.
“If you play with people’s lives … unfortunately, we are forgiving, but there’s people that are very dangerous out there,” warns Gumede.
He discusses the need to remain reliable because “people trust us with information … we forget sometimes that we live in a country with a high crime rate. People just knock you.”
He adds that none of the people who executed the hit had ever been arrested either.
“So what I’m saying is: we all need to be mindful, and be careful, because none of us want to end up like that.”
In the last part of the recording the audio becomes hard to discern, but Gumede’s final words are clearly a recommendation that people should feel happy to retain their silence because they are earning well.
“…it’s not like any of us are being short-changed. We are working for him.”
When called to verify the recording after it was sent to The Citizen, Agrizzi confirmed that it was real and had been recorded by his Bosasa colleagues, who he named. They also became whistle-blowers later, and claim Gumede was warning them to rethink it as a warning.
When his colleagues sent it to him in 2017, Agrizzi interpreted it as threatening and reported the matter to the Hawks.
Gumede was one of the complainants in the crimen injuria case against Agrizzi for another recording in which Agrizzi can be heard using the k-word. He continues to face charges in relation to that case. He told The Citizen that he had heard the Gumede recording before his own rant, and said it had partly been triggered by that.
When called for comment, Gumede did not deny that it was him on the recording, but refused to explain what he had meant with his words.
“Did I give you that recording? You must ask the person who gave you that recording what I am saying there,” he said before hanging up.
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