Former Bosasa COO Angelo Agrizzi says the controversial facilities management company effectively kept environmental affairs minister Nomvula Mokonyane on a corrupt retainer — paying her with cash, property maintenance and food — because of the huge power she wielded. Now he has suggested that Mokonyane, who says she will testify at the Zondo inquiry into state capture to clear her name, may have been given such benefits, so that she would make a key environmental decision in favor of members of the Watson family. Gavin Watson is the CEO of Bosasa. Agrizzi on Thursday raised questions about Mokonyane’s role in adjudicating an ongoing wind farm environmental dispute that directly involves the Watson family. The Inyanda-Roodeplaat Wind Energy Facility is an Eastern Cape wind farm project that the family want to build on top of a mountain, in an area regarded as extremely environmentally sensitive.

While the farm received the go-ahead from the department of environmental affairs ...

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