Zondo inquiry hears of Zuma's secret meetings with Bain & Company

Zondo inquiry hears of Zuma's secret meetings with Bain & Company

The commission of inquiry into state capture has heard of a suspicious relationship between former president Jacob Zuma and consulting firm Bain & Company. 

Athol Williams
Supplied

Former partner at the Boston-based firm Athol Williams appeared before the commission on Tuesday. 

He said in 2013, Bain had aligned its work to  

 Zuma through its South African director Vittorio Massone. 

It entered into a contract with a company called Ambrobrite, owned by TV producer Duma Ndlovu, who he says was paid for arranging meetings with Zuma and other politicians. 

He said at some point, Ambrobrite sent Bain an invoice of R50 000 for an ANC Youth League party. 

"Bain provides advisory services to clients and the companies expenses are normally staff and the normal running of the company. Why Bain would be paying for an ANC Youth League party, I can't see whats circumstances in Bain's usual business would require them to do so," Williams told the commission.

He said Bain was also involved in arranging meetings between South African law enforcement agencies, Italian law enforcement and Interpol.

But what he said he found even more bizarre, was the relationship Bain developed with Zuma. 

"It is highly unusual for a management consultant to be meeting with the president of any county, its just not the work that we do. We typically work with executives of companies and state entities on operational issues.

"Meeting with the president at least 12 times and I estimate its much more than 12 times. Why would these unusual meetings be happening in that frequency, all after-hours and behind closed doors at the presidents official home," said Williams.

He said what followed was Project Phoenix, which was designed by Bain to restructure the South African economy through SOEs.

This project started at Telkom and was earmarked for Eskom and the South African Revenue Service. 

He said Bain introduced a ‘president programme’ which was aimed at stripping the executive powers of ministers and centralise decision-making around the president.

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