Armaments Corporation of South Africa (Armscor) CEO Kevin Wakeford has been granted special leave following revelations at the state capture commission of inquiry.
Armscor, the acquisition agency for the Department of Defence, said on Monday that the board decided to grant the request from Wakeford, who became CEO in 2015, "until further notice".
"In the light of the latest media developments where the CEO of Armscor, Mr Kevin Wakeford's name was mentioned in the list of individuals who are said to have benefited from the Bosasa Group, and subsequent confirmation with the commission of inquiry into state capture, the CEO has requested special leave," the company said in a statement on Monday afternoon.
"This is in order to allow him time to prepare his evidence for the commission," it said.
Armscor confirmed in the statement that it had not done any work for and had no known commercial contract with Bosasa, now known as African Global Corporations.
The board will meet in due course to finalise the interim arrangements.
Bosasa former chief operations officer Angelo Agrizzi has been giving explosive evidence at the commission since the hearings resumed in 2019.
In an IOL report on Sunday, Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula admitted that she was one of the founders of Dyambu Holdings, which later became Bosasa, but said that she had never received any dividends.
According to the report, her spokesperson Joy Peter said the minister had declared her directorship in Parliament's Register of Members' Interests.
The report also claimed that Bosasa boss Gavin Watson who, based on Agrizzi's testimony, emerged as the "kingpin of bribes", apparently showered the SA Post Office's former chief executive, Maanda Manyatshe, and former head of security, Siviwe Mapisa, with expensive gifts including luxury pens, cufflinks and fake watches.
Siviwe Mapisa is Mapisa-Nqakula's brother.
The publication claimed it obtained documents which showed that Mapisa had a trust which was registered in 2007 of which Wakeford and Watson's brother, Valence Watson, were trustees.
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