Former National Assembly speaker, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, on Wednesday made her first appearance before the High Court in Pretoria on corruption and money-laundering charges.
In July, reported that the case against Mapisa-Nqakula had been moved to the High Court, with her first appearance scheduled for October 16, for a pretrial conference to pave the way for the trial.
During the brief court appearance on Wednesday, the court heard that Mapisa-Nqakula’s counsel has not received some sections of the case docket, and will be making an application for the documents.
This impending application has necessitated the postponement of the case to December 5.
The matter was previously before the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court where Mapisa-Nqakula was served with the original indictment, setting out the charges against her.
The charges relate to her tenure between 2016 and 2019 when she was minister of defence. Mapisa-Nqakula allegedly solicited R4.5 million from a service provider of the department of defence and military veterans.
Pretoria News reported that the official indictment listed 26 witnesses which the State is intending to call, including United Democratic Movement leader, General Bantu Holomisa, who is also Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans.
A summary of facts on which the State will rely on to prove its case, formed part of the indictment. It states that Nombasa Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu — the State’s star witness — was at the time of the alleged offences, the sole director of Umkhombe Marine Pty Ltd.
The core business of Umkhombe was to provide logistics services to the South African National Defence Force on a procurement basis.
In February 2016, Umkhombe was awarded a contract to the value of R104 million by the SANDF.
In April, Mapisa-Nqakula’s much-anticipated court appearance came hours after she handed herself over to police at the Lyttelton police station in Tshwane.
The prosecution team stated that charges against Mapisa-Nqakula were 12 counts of corruption under Preca (Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act) and one of money laundering under Poca (Prevention of Organised Crime Act) for soliciting R4.5 million from the defence contractor – Nombasa Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu.
The State’s case is that despite soliciting R4.5 million, Mapisa-Nqakula received R2.5 million and the prosecution told the court that it knows “what the money received was used for”.
The former minister of defence and military veterans was facing multiple charges of corruption, stemming from a high-profile investigation into her affairs when she presided over South Africa’s military.
