Staff Reporter.
The corruption case against former Bosasa COO Angelo Agrizzi was on Thursday postponed to March 2 2022.
The postponement in the Johannesburg specialised commercial crimes court, sitting at the Palm Ridge magistrate’s court, was to allow for the state to appoint a medical professional, a pulmonologist, to assess Agrizzi’s health but he was a no-show. His lawyer handed over a medical certificate to the court stating that Agrizzi was too ill to attend court proceedings.
This follows his failure to appear in court for nine months, since October 2020, citing ill health.
The National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA’s) Investigating Directorate (ID) said the case would resume again on 2 March 2022.
In the meantime, the state will be allowed to go through Agrizzi’s medical records and appoint a pulmonologist to ascertain whether he is indeed unable to attend his trial.
Agrizzi’s lawyer also requested that he report to a different police station as part of his bail conditions after he relocated to a different area in Johannesburg.
“He will be reporting to the Douglasdale police station from 10 December. He is expected to report every Friday,” said the ID’s spokesperson Sindisiwe Seboka.
In November, the court had issued a warrant of arrest for Agrizzi, but it was stayed until the next appearance on 21 January 2022 in a separate case related to Bosasa’s R1.8 billion fraud and corruption trial.
Agrizzi is accused of paying bribes on behalf of Bosasa to former ANC parliamentarian Vincent Smith in exchange for his influence, as he was the then-chairperson of Parliament’s oversight committee on Correctional Services.