Gavin Watson delivered birthday gifts to us: Mokonyane's PA
The commission of inquiry into state capture has heard that the late African Global Operations (formerly Bosasa) CEO Gavin Watson had a close relationship with former cabinet minister Nomvula Mokonyane.
Sandra Thomas, who has been Mokonyane's assistant for over 20 years, took the stand on Monday.
Her testimony related to evidence provided the commission in 2019 by former Bosasa COO Angelo Agrizzi around the gifts given to Mokonyane.
Thomas said she only spoke to Agrizzi once or twice but often spoke to Watson, who she described as a family friend of the Mokonyane family.
"Mr. Watson would call either on my birthday or the day after my birthday. He would ask for my opinion on whether to buy Mokonyane flowers and ask for recommendations.
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"I think through their discussions, he discovered myself and the minister share a birthday in the same week, he would then also surprise me or call me."
She also told the commission that Mokonyane's husband often instructed her to contact a former Bosasa employee, Richard le Roux, to do maintenance work on their house.
"There was a day the alarm went crazy and, I asked the helper to switch it off and for some reason it still didn't help. I called Mr. Mokonyane and he said I should call Mr. Le Roux. I did not know his surname at the time, I only knew his name," said Thomas.
Agrizzi testified that Le Roux headed a team at Bosasa that installed security upgrades to the houses of certain high profile people, including Mokonyane, whom he believed had a corrupt relationship with Watson.
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