News24 | Angelo Agrizzi in plea negotiations with the State

Former Bosasa COO Angelo Agrizzi has entered into plea negotiations with the State.

• Former Bosasa COO Angelo Agrizzi has entered into plea negotiations with the State.
• Agrizzi has been charged with corruption related to the more than R1.8 billion in tenders that Bosasa won from the Department of Correctional Services.
• He has also been charged in connection with kickbacks that former ANC MP Vincent Smith allegedly received from himself and/or Bosasa.

Former Bosasa chief operating officer Angelo Agrizzi is currently in negotiations with the State for a possible plea deal in his fraud and corruption case.

The case against Agrizzi came briefly before the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Thursday, where it was postponed.

Prosecutor Arno Rossouw told the court that the postponement was for further negotiations in terms of Section 105A of the Criminal Procedure Act.

This section allows for plea and sentence agreements between the State and an accused before the start of trial. If the agreement is accepted, the accused pleads guilty, and a sentence is suggested to the court.

The court, however, is not bound by the agreement.

Agrizzi was not in court on Thursday, nor did he appear virtually via a video link, as per a previous court ruling allowing this because of his ill health.

Advocate Manny Witz, for Agrizzi, agreed to the postponement, though.

The main case against Agrizzi centres around the more than R1.8 billion worth of prison tenders Bosasa and its subsidiaries scooped between 2004 and 2007, News24 previously reported.

READ | Bosasa accused want legal and living expenses to be paid from funds frozen by AFU

The tenders were for perimeter fencing, CCTV cameras, catering, and training services at prisons in South Africa.

Agrizzi was initially charged alongside former correctional services bosses Linda Mti, Patrick Gillingham and Andries van Tonder over allegations that bribes were facilitated to influence the channelling of tenders to Bosasa.

His trial was subsequently separated from his co-accused due to delays in proceedings caused by his health.

Mti, Gillingham and Van Tonder also appeared in court on Thursday for their case which was postponed to October.

Agrizzi has also been charged in connection with kickbacks that former ANC MP Vincent Smith allegedly received from himself and/or Bosasa. His trial has also been separated from that of Smith.