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The tide seems to have finally turned against Bosasa after Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, new National Prosecuting Authority boss Shamila Batohi and Justice Minister Michael Masutha this week expressed the need for urgent steps to be taken to stem the flow of taxpayers’ money into Bosasa’s coffers.
On Friday, Zondo urged the commission’s investigative team to verify the allegations that have been made during the inquiry so far, and recommended that the relevant authorities step in and take action to stop the rot after hearing testimony from Dennis Bloem, the former chairperson of the portfolio committee on justice and correctional services.
Bloem – who sat on the correctional services committee from 1994 to 2014 – informed the commission that, having been awarded irregular tenders to the tune of billions of rands, Bosasa’s subsidiary companies were being remunerated, but they supplied no services to the correctional services department.
Bloem said Bosasa received millions of rands for a catering tender it received in 2004, but inmates continued to perform the cooking duties and no goods were brought in by Bosasa.
To this allegation, Zondo responded: “I hope the investigators can establish whether, as we speak, that is still the position with regards to the catering contract.
“If Mr Bloem’s evidence is true and is corroborated, then maybe some urgent steps need to be taken by the relevant authorities.”
Similar sentiments were echoed by Batohi and Masutha on Friday when Batohi took up her position as the national director of public prosecutions.
During a media briefing, Batohi said her office was gearing up to deal with these allegations head-on.
She said the allegations were “unprecedented in terms of their scope, nature and complexity”, but she would be compiling a multidisciplinary strategy to respond to them.
Masutha said the national commissioner of correctional services, Arthur Fraser, was re-evaluating all tenders his department had with Bosasa, and that he was looking forward to “extricating the department from any association with Bosasa”.
