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'Send Bosasa culprits to prison not Parliament' - Maimane calls for 15 years jail time for corrupt politicians

Testimony at the state capture inquiry about facilities company Bosasa showed that the justice system must hand out stern punishments to corrupt politicians, DA leader Mmusi Maimane has said.

Angelo Agrizzi, the former Bosasa chief operations officer turned whistleblower, has made startling allegations against high-profile politicians since beginning his testimony at the commission last week.

Maimane on Wednesday said Agrizzi's testimony proved that former president Jacob Zuma was "not the only ANC member who was corrupt", and that harsher sentences needed to be meted out if people were convicted.

"It shows the fact that the ANC is a corrupt organisation. My call is that we need 15 years (in jail) for corrupt politicians," Maimane said.

READ: 'ANC not serious about tackling corruption head on' - DA in reaction to ANC manifesto launch

"I hope all the people who have been implicated in the Bosasa (scandal) find themselves in jail and that, more seriously, we should stop putting people in Parliament, we should rather send them to prison. Our focus must be to rid the country of corruption, and what Bosasa is telling us is that to rid the country of corruption is to rid the country of the ANC," he said.

Maimane was speaking to journalists outside the KwaMnyandu Mall in Umlazi, south of Durban, during his "Kasi-to-Kasi tour" in KwaZulu-Natal.

Maimane said if he was in President Cyril Ramaphosa's shoes, he would have fired Environmental Affairs Minister and senior ANC official Nomvula Mokonyane from Cabinet, after she was implicated in testimony.

Agrizzi testified that top ANC politicians, including Mokonyane, were on Bosasa's monthly payroll. 

Agrizzi said Mokonyane had been paid R50 000 a month for years, amongst other things, to protect Bosasa from law enforcement agencies.

Mokonyane hit back at the commission, saying no appropriate platform had been provided for her to counter the claims, and that she was notified beforehand that she would be implicated.

"We have to ask the question, why there has been no NPA investigation? We have to ask the question, why is Nomvula still a member of Cabinet?" Maimane continued.

"Why are all these allegations, that are surfacing now, as if they are new revelations to President Ramaphosa?" he asked.

'No dealings with Bosasa'

He said DA members had had no dealings with Bosasa.

"The DA runs a clean open governance. We ensure that all our public representatives are accountable to the people," he said.

Before speaking to the media, Maimane was warmly welcomed by informal traders and workers he interacted with inside and outside the mall.

He encouraged them to register to vote in the upcoming final voter registration weekend on January 26 and 27.

Maimane was accompanied by DA premier candidate Zwakele Mncwango and other senior DA members in the province.

He said one of the challenges faced by people in KwaZulu-Natal was unemployment.

"We want each and every household to at least have one person who is working because if people are not working the poverty rate increases. We want a South Africa that has police who work for the nation so that we are able to deal with corruption," he said.

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