The voluminous docket in the new R28m tax fraud charges against former ANC MP Vincent Smith, which is in addition to his fraud and corruption charges involving former Bosasa executive Angelo Agrizzi, has further delayed his case.

Smith, who appeared in the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crime Court yesterday, asked for a three-month postponement so that his legal team can study the updated case docket the state has compiled against him, and so that he can consult tax experts, the Mail & Guardian reports.

Smith, along with his company, Euroblitz, was initially arrested in October 2020 for an alleged R800 000 bribe he received from Agrizzi allegedly to pay for his daughter’s tertiary studies in Wales.

Smith was chair of Parliament’s Correctional Services Portfolio Committee at the time.

Bosasa received contracts worth about R1bn from the Correctional Services Department in deals the state alleges were rife with corruption, the result of the Watson family, which owned Bosasa, flexing its political connections.

In January, during Smith’s last court appearance, the state introduced new tax fraud and money laundering charges against him and Euroblitz for the ‘failure to disclose taxable income from 9 March 2009 (to) 11 July 2018, totalling R28m’.

It has also emerged that Smith received a slew of alleged ‘gratifications’ that, the state claims, he failed to declare in Parliament, including security upgrades to his private home that were allegedly sponsored by Bosasa.

‘He further faces corruption charges by accepting further gratifications from Waterfall Golf Estate and CLIDET 69. The accused also faces charges for accepting cash transferred into his bank account and his company from Bosasa and other people unknown to the state,’ said Sindisiwe Seboka, spokesperson for the NPA's Investigating Directorate.

Altogether, Smith faces charges of tax fraud, money laundering, corruption and breach of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act.

Full Mail & Guardian report