With his tail wagging between his legs, former ANC spokesperson Zizi Kodwa admitted to — at the very least — breaching ethical codes during the first half of his State Capture testimony.
More shocking for many who were tuned into the live stream on Monday, was the candid nature of Kodwa’s concession to a number of unscrupulous claims. After all, there was little else he could do since the truth was depicted in the financial paper trail he left in his bank account.
Zizi Kodwa on the hot seat: Here’s what he said
In late May 2021, the DCJ Raymond Zondo had commissioned Steven Powell, a specialist investigator at ENS Forensics, to probe Kodwa’s relationship with a tech company only known as EOH.
What Powell found was a paper trail of payments amounting to more than R2 million paid to the deputy state security minister between May 2015 and February 2016 by EOH director Jehan Mackay, as well as a total of R15 million in ‘donations’ listed as ‘cost of sales’ in EOH’s bank statements.
Faced with questions around these dubious payments, Kodwa admitted that while he should have been more cautious about receiving large sums of cash from someone he called ‘a friend’, this was in no way an attempt by EOH to cut the queue for tenders and ANC projects.
“I came to assure you that such payments were indeed financial help from a friend, and yes, they sometimes involved figures that seem high. However, I assure you that it was due to my financial difficulties and sometimes need for accommodation as I travel. None of the payments, catering or accommodation were offered to me to facilitate any unlawful act,” Kodwa insisted.
Breaking down the suspicious monies
On Monday, the commission heard of some of the large sums of money that were paid either to or on behalf of Kodwa, by Mackay and other contractors. Whether this was at the request of Kodwa who, at the time, was a gatekeeper to the higher-ups of the ANC remains to be unravelled.
However, thus far, we know that the deputy state security minister received:
- R230 000 for a two-week stay at the swanky Villa Barbados in Camps Bay, Western Cape, during the 2015 Christmas holidays;
- complementary stays at an unnamed luxury hotel that cost Mackay R50 000 a night;
- R30 000 to take Kodwa’s account out of arrears; and among others,
- R1 million, of which R890 000, Kodwa used to purchase a Jeep.
All these monies, according to the former spokesperson, were Mackay’s genuine way of providing a friend with financial support in times of desperate need.
Of course, the coincidence of it all, including the timing in EOH’s awarded contracts to the tune of more than R217 million between 2015 and 2016, will be thoroughly probed by the commission when it returns from a lunch break to grill Kodwa.