Vincent Smith (politician)

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(see below).

Committee on Constitutional Review

By the outset of the fifth Democratic Parliament, Smith had a reputation as "one of the ANC's most formidable legislators" and "ever the party man". [15] After the 2014 general election, the ANC nominated him to chair the Standing Committee on the Auditor-General. [16] [2] At the same time, at different points in the parliamentary term, he chaired several important ad hoc committees: the committee that investigated the fitness of the SABC board; [15] the committee that considered proposals to regulate the party finance; [17] and, most prominently, the ad hoc committee on constitutional review, which considered a proposal to amend Section 25 of the Constitution to allow for land expropriation without compensation. He led the latter committee as it held public hearings in all nine provinces. [18]

However, in early September 2018, Smith said that he had asked to step aside from his committee duties until he had finalised his response to emerging corruption allegations against him (see below). [19] ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu said that the ANC was "very inspired by the strong sense of integrity and political accountability" shown by Smith's request. [20] Though the allegations pertained to Smith's tenure as chairperson of the correctional services committee, Mthembu suggested that they had been orchestrated by forces opposed to land expropriation without compensation. [20] He told the media:

Whilst we do not understand the motive behind those who put this story in the public domain‚ we can only suspect that their timing is inspired by the ANC's position on the expropriation of land without compensation. In recent weeks‚ [Smith] has been on national and international platforms articulating the ANC's position on the expropriation of land without compensation. We are therefore convinced that he is a target of the organisations who are vehemently opposed to our people getting access to the land that they were dispossessed from by colonial and apartheid oppressors. [21]

The corruption allegations dominated the remainder of Smith's fourth term in Parliament, and he vacated his seat after the 2019 general election. [2]

Relationship with Bosasa

Media reports

In 2018, while Smith was a senior MP and amid a broader media storm about alleged state capture during the presidency of Jacob Zuma, Smith was implicated in possible corruption in the correctional services portfolio during his tenure as chairperson of the relevant committee from 2009 to 2014. On 2 September 2018, News24 reported that it had seen evidence that Bosasa had paid a total of R671,000 to Smith's company, Euro Blitz 48, in two payments in 2015 and 2016. [22] The payments were in addition to other benefits – the installation of a R200,000 security system and monthly cash payments – that Smith was alleged to have received from Bosasa and its chief executive, Gavin Watson. [22] The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) called for a parliamentary investigation into a possible conflict of interest. [23]

In a statement, Smith denied that he had received the additional benefits but said that he had received R671,000 as a personal loan from former Bosasa chief operations officer Angelo Agrizzi. According to Smith, he had used the loans to pay for his daughter's university education in Wales. [21] He said that he would welcome and cooperate with any ethics inquiry and that he would step aside from his committee chairmanships until the matter was finalised. [21]

Zondo Commission

Agrizzi's testimony

In late 2018, Agrizzi announced his decision to turn whistleblower and expose corruption at Bosasa, his former workplace. In January 2019, during his testimony to the Zondo Commission, he denied Smith's account of the Bosasa payments, saying that the money was neither loaned to Smith nor paid by Agrizzi in his personal capacity; instead, the payments were part of a deliberate scheme by Bosasa to co-opt members of the correctional services committee and thereby "manage the negative impact" of media reports about corruption. [24] According to Agrizzi, Bosasa executive Gavin Watson had paid monthly cash payments to Smith and two other ANC MPs on the committee, Vincent Magagula and Winnie Ngwenya. [24]

In March, Agrizzi elaborated on his account, telling the commission that the relationship between Bosasa and Smith had been facilitated by another senior ANC MP, Cedric Frolick, whom Agrizzi claimed was also on the Bosasa payroll. In Agrizzi's account, Bosasa had first met with Smith in around 2010 with Frolick assisting to "break the ice"; Smith was at the time "very anti-Bosasa" and Watson had asked Frolick to "do whatever he could do to win over Vincent Smith, or alternatively find a way to have him moved". [13]

Smith's testimony

When Smith himself appeared before the Zondo Commission in 2020 and 2021, he continued to maintain that the money he had received from Bosasa was a personal loan from Agrizzi. [25] In addition, he admitted that, while committee chairperson, he had met with Bosasa officials at a hotel in Sandton, but he claimed that this was an ordinary engagement with portfolio stakeholders and that he and Watson had never discussed the corruption allegations against Bosasa. [25]

Asked by commission chairperson Raymond Zondo why Smith and the committee had not followed up on the SIU's "horrific stories of corruption" in the Bosasa contracts, Smith said that the committee had likely flagged its concern even if not "outrightly", but admitted that, in retrospect, a more blunt warning would have been appropriate. [14] However, he argued that committee minutes reflected that the committee under Smith's leadership had been "anti-outsourcing":

I have no doubt that my stance and the stance of the committee throughout my tenure was not anti-Bosasa, but it was anti-outsourcing. It was not an attack on a company but it was an attack on the management style. There were no holy cows. Bosasa was not a holy cow. I don't understand, chair, that if I was getting R45,000 to do a job, in other words to be soft on them, three years later I'm still as harsh as I am, and they continue to give me that money. It doesn't make sense to me. [25]

Findings

Part three of the Zondo Commission's final report, released in March 2022, focused on Bosasa and largely accepted the allegations of misconduct by Smith. [26] The commission was concerned about Smith's meetings with Bosasa officials; said that there was no evidence that the payments to Smith had been intended as a loan; and recapitulated prima facie evidence that Smith had received other benefits, including security upgrades at his Roodepoort home and, from 2011, monthly payments of R45,000. The commission noted that Smith appeared in a "black book" kept by Watson under an entry "Vincent Smith 100,000", supporting Agrizzi's claim that, by 2016, the payments were increased to R100,000 monthly at Smith's request. [26]

The report concluded that Smith had breached the "oath sworn by Members of Parliament to uphold the Constitution and to perform their work to the best of their ability". [26] It recommended that Smith's conduct should be referred for investigation and prosecution, though this was largely a technicality because Smith had already been indicted on related charges. [26]

Criminal charges

In October 2020, Smith was indicted on criminal charges in the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crimes Court. He was charged with two counts of corruption – one in a personal capacity and one in his capacity as sole director of Euroblitz 48 – and a count of fraud. [27] The National Prosecuting Authority alleged that he had accepted unlawful inducements in exchange for endorsing the extension of Bosasa's contract with the government; Agrizzi also faced criminal charges for having bribed him. [28] Smith submitted to arrest at a police station in Alberton and pled not guilty to all charges, saying, "I have faith in and trust the South African legal system and that the facts will show that I'm not guilty of the charges levelled against me". [27] He was released on R30,000 bail. [27]

In November 2021, the Investigating Directorate amended the indictment to add charges of tax fraud and money laundering, pertaining to income of about R28 million that Euroblitz 48 had allegedly failed to disclose to South African Revenue Service between 2009 and 2018. [28] [29] He was also charged with breaching the Financial Intelligence Centre Act [30] and faced additional charges unrelated to the Bosasa contract: prosecutors alleged that, from 2005 onwards, he had earned multimillion-rand consultancy fees for using his political influence to accelerate the award of planning permits for two other private companies. [28] With the total indictment now running to 29 charges in total, [28] the trial remained ongoing as of 2022. [30] [31]

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References

  1. 1 2 "General Notice: Notice 1319 of 1999 – Electoral Commission: Representatives Elected to the Various Legislatures" (PDF). Government Gazette of South Africa . Vol. 408, no. 20203. Pretoria, South Africa: Government of South Africa. 11 June 1999. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Vincent George Smith". People's Assembly. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  3. ↑ "Mr Vincent Smith – ANC". People's Assembly. 1 August 2018. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Is Smith just doing his job?". The Mail & Guardian. 1 March 2002. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  5. ↑ "Members of the National Assembly". Parliamentary Monitoring Group. Archived from the original on 9 February 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
  6. 1 2 "Arms and the MPs". The Mail & Guardian. 1 January 2002. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  7. ↑ "ANC man to head key fiscal watchdog". The Mail & Guardian. 6 May 2004. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  8. ↑ "NNP to chair Scopa – for now". IOL. 2 June 2004. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
  9. ↑ "Appointment of Committee Chairpersons". ANC Parliamentary Caucus. 21 May 2009. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  10. ↑ "Prisons graft: Here's the proof, minister". The Mail & Guardian. 30 January 2009. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  11. ↑ "Prisons graft: Bosasa's empire of influence". The Mail & Guardian. 20 November 2009. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
  12. ↑ Basson, Adriaan (20 March 2011). "Report: Prison boss was bribed". News24. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
  13. 1 2 3 "Agrizzi: Frolick paid to 'break the ice' with Vincent Smith". The Mail & Guardian. 29 March 2019. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  14. 1 2 3 "Smith flounders as Zondo asks why he did not sound the alarm on Bosasa". The Mail & Guardian. 9 February 2021. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  15. 1 2 3 "Careers the Zondo state capture inquiry has ended (or not)". The Mail & Guardian. 16 October 2021. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  16. ↑ "This is who'll chair parliamentary committees". Politicsweb. 12 June 2014. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  17. ↑ "New ad hoc committee elects chairperson, Mr Vincent Smith". Parliament of South Africa. 21 June 2017. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  18. ↑ "Land expropriation without compensation: Public hearings to begin in June". The Mail & Guardian. 31 May 2018. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  19. ↑ "ANC MP Vincent Smith steps out of land hearings to deal with Bosasa allegations". The Mail & Guardian. 4 September 2018. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  20. 1 2 "Anti land expropriation groups targeting Vincent Smith – ANC caucus". The Mail & Guardian. 13 September 2018. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  21. 1 2 3 "It was a personal loan – ANC MP Vincent Smith on R600k cash exchange". Sunday Times. 4 September 2018. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  22. 1 2 "ANC rallies around MP Vincent Smith after controversial Bosasa payments". Daily Maverick. 4 September 2018. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  23. ↑ "DA to report Vincent Smith to ethics committee over alleged Bosasa payments". The Mail & Guardian. 2 September 2018. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  24. 1 2 "Agrizzi: R671,000 paid to ANC MP by Bosasa was 'not a loan'". Sunday Times. 22 January 2019. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  25. 1 2 3 Chabalala, Jeanette (4 September 2020). "Loan agreement was with Angelo Agrizzi, not Bosasa, Vincent Smith testifies". News24. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  26. 1 2 3 4 Payne, Suné (1 March 2022). "Vincent Smith breached oath of MPs, says commission in report on Bosasa". Daily Maverick. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  27. 1 2 3 "Vincent Smith the first to head to court after blitz of Hawks arrests". The Mail & Guardian. 1 October 2020. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  28. 1 2 3 4 "Vincent Smith indicted on additional charges of evading tax to the tune of R10mn". The Mail & Guardian. 2 November 2021. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  29. ↑ Monama, Tebogo (5 July 2022). "Former ANC MP Vincent Smith's fraud case postponed again". News24. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  30. 1 2 "New R28m tax fraud charges delay Vincent Smith's trial". The Mail & Guardian. 6 April 2022. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  31. ↑ Chabalala, Jeanette (4 August 2022). "Former ANC MP Vincent Smith to make representations to have charges against him withdrawn". News24. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
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Vincent Smith
Member of the National Assembly
In office
June 1999 –7 May 2019