Smith took bribes while running parliament’s anti-bribery inquiry - John Matisonn

Key topics:Ex-ANC MP Vincent Smith jailed over Bosasa corruption scandalSmith once led SABC anti-corruption probe while taking Bosasa cashSentence revives scrutiny of ANC corruption before local elections.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox every morning on weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa's bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By John Matisonn.The first orange overalls for a big ANC fish has gone to a man whose career perfectly embodies the ANC’s schizophrenic, love-hate relationship with corruption.In late 2016 ANC MP Vincent Smith presided over parliament’s anti-corruption inquiry into the SABC with a firm hand. He presented an apparently cast iron appreciation for the vital importance of restoring integrity to government.Day after day, Smith wagged his finger angrily at SABC officials, excoriating them for misusing government funds, singling out individual SABC managers in the gallery, and telling them never to waste government money again. It was a rare assault on corruption during the last days of the Jacob Zuma presidency, brought about because corruption had cost the ANC control of South Africa’s most important towns. The ANC had just lost elections in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay..Read more:.Caught on Camera: IDT CEO and spokesperson offer journalist R60,000 bribe to bury corruption probe.Smith’s performance was impressive. It led to the removal of the SABC board and its replacement by an interim board that immediately fired COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng . (Disclosure – I was one of five members of that interim board.)For once parliament did its job, showing how accountability is supposed to work. Then it fell back into covering corruption up.We now know that while Smith was wielding the gavel against corruption he had become a key beneficiary of the facilities company Bosasa while also chairing the Justice and Correctional Services committee. Bosasa got contracts worth more than a billion rand from the prisons.Smith’s wrongdoing came to light three years later when Angelo Agrizzi said he got about R800,000 from Bosasa. Last week Smith pleaded guilty to charges that include Contravening Section 7 of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act 12 of 2004 (PRECCA), fraud, money laundering and the Contravention of the Tax Act. He failed to disclose the taxable income of Euroblitz between March 2009 and July 2018, totalling to approximately R28 million. Charges against Euroblitz were, however, withdrawn.During the proceedings, the judge expressed grave concern over what he characterised as a "scourge" of corruption that has infiltrated various levels of society, asserting that it necessitates decisive action.He was sentenced to 12 years on each of the counts, each suspended for five years.He will effectively spend seven years in prison.Aggrizzi also made allegations that ANC Deputy Secretary-General Nomvula Mokonyane accepted monthly payments of R50,000 over several years including while she was Gauteng premier.Mokonyane has denied the allegations. Agrizzi claimed Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe received tens of thousands of rands worth of free security upgrades — including CCTV and fencing — at his three private homes from Bosasa while ANC Secretary-General. He has denied that the security cameras could be seen as a bribe. Exactly ten years after Smith’s SABC investigation, the ANC again faces possibly awful municipal elections this year, and again it’s trying to show its anti-corruption side. This time the Madlanga Commission and an ad hoc parliamentary committee have zeroed in on Cat Matlala’s extensive influence in the police. There has been a flurry of statements from both the government and the ANC welcoming clean-up efforts. In a statement released following Smith’s sentence, the government said that it “reflected its commitment … to intensify the fight against corruption and ensure that those who abuse public resources are held accountable.”.Read more:.SA’s urgent need for an independent anti-corruption body.But a parliamentary website still displays Smith’s pious credo:“Freedom is not easy and the more you sacrifice the faster we will reach our destination of total freedom – what you put in will determine whatever your goal is as everything comes with effort. 1994 was the beginning, not the end of the journey – one that will take a long time and a lot of effort but it needs all of us to work on it.” Thanks for the advice, Vincent.

Smith took bribes while running parliament’s anti-bribery inquiry - John Matisonn

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