A South African businessman who admitted to being a key player in one of the country’s biggest corruption scandals has escaped jail after striking a plea deal with prosecutors.
Angelo Agrizzi, the former chief operating officer of the facilities management company Bosasa, was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Thursday, but the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said the sentence was suspended on the condition that he continues cooperating with ongoing investigations.
Agrizzi, who shocked the nation in 2019 with explosive testimony at the Zondo Commission on state capture, revealed how he helped funnel bribes to government ministers, senior officials, and members of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to secure lucrative public contracts.
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For weeks, his revelations dominated headlines as he described a sophisticated system of bribery, where cash was hidden in folded newspapers and gray bags before being delivered to politicians. “Part of my job involved delivering bags of cash and organizing favors for cabinet ministers and senior officials,” Agrizzi testified. He said he even kept a small black book documenting every illicit payment.
His plea agreement relates specifically to corruption involving senior officials from South Africa’s Department of Corrections and a former ANC lawmaker. All three allegedly accepted bribes in exchange for awarding Bosasa multimillion-dollar contracts to service the country’s prisons.
Under the plea deal, Agrizzi admitted guilt to three counts of corruption and one of money laundering. Prosecutors say Bosasa received more than $100 million in government contracts as a result of the bribes, AP reported.
Bosasa’s chief executive officer, whom Agrizzi described as the mastermind behind the operation, died in a mysterious car crash months after Agrizzi’s testimony. A private pathology report later revealed the CEO was already dead before his car struck a pillar near Johannesburg’s airport, sparking speculation about foul play.
The Zondo Commission, which ran from 2018 to 2022, investigated years of deep-rooted corruption under former President Jacob Zuma’s administration. Although the inquiry interviewed hundreds of witnesses and exposed vast networks of political graft, only a few of those implicated have faced prosecution, prompting public frustration over a perceived lack of accountability.
Zuma, who ruled from 2009 until his resignation in 2018, was convicted of contempt of court for refusing to appear before the commission. He later faced separate charges in 2021, including corruption, racketeering, fraud, tax evasion, and money laundering, tied to earlier scandals dating back to the late 1990s, a case that has yet to go to trial.
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