Update: Angelo Agrizzi’s legal team successfully petitioned for a postponement of his cross-examination by Kevin Wakeford after arguing that the Zondo Commission’s star witness was unable to properly participate because his counsel is out of the country. Judge Zondo agreed to the request for postponement to a date to be determined, likely to be close to the end of the year.
From this morning’s Daily Insider newsletter:
There have been big days among almost 180 sessions since the Zondo Commission into State Capture began last August. For sheer drama, however, few match what is scheduled for today. Because for the first time since his dynamite testimony in January, Zondo’s star witness, Angelo Agrizzi, is to be cross examined by someone he fingered.
After nine long months and a pension spent on legal fees, Kevin Wakeford will respond to Agrizzi’s accusations. Wakeford was named by the BOSASA canary as complicit in bribery and corruption. Ever since those allegations, the former Armscor CEO who was once SA’s most famous whistleblower, has been trashed in the court of public opinion.
It is 17 years since Wakeford was famously bulleted as CEO of SA’s Chamber of Business after calling for an official inquiry into the engineered collapse of the rand. Getting to the truth of that expensive saga took years, but he was eventually vindicated. The late Barry Sergeant’s book on the subject is instructive.
Today Wakeford gets a second bite at a commission of inquiry whose deliberations are of national significance. He says Agrizzi and his associate Frans Vorster are blatant liars. If Wakeford is right, Agrizzi and his cohort will lose their Section 204 immunity which protects whistleblowers – provided they tell the truth. This time it’s binary. After today’s deliberations, the tailors can start measuring up someone’s orange onesie.
