By Bhekizenzo Zonele
Former National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has challenged the state’s claims that she could not afford renovations to her home, insisting that the money used for the construction work came from legitimate sources and not alleged corrupt payments.
Testifying in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday, Mapisa-Nqakula was questioned about her financial affairs, including payments from a company identified as Edge Bay, her household’s financial position and outstanding debts to a building contractor.
The state questioned how the former defence minister could have afforded the renovations, arguing that financial records relating to her, her husband and their children showed insufficient funds to cover the construction costs.
However, Mapisa-Nqakula maintained that she had sufficient income and savings to finance the work.
“My lady, I have no reason to disguise the money or the source of the money I used for renovations in my house,” she told the court.
She also denied ever asking state witness Nombasa Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu for money, whose allegations form a central part of the prosecution’s case.
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“I’ve never asked for Nombasa’s money. Of course, my lady, in this case I’m the accused and it suits whoever to say whatever about me,” Mapisa-Nqakula said.
During cross-examination, she acknowledged receiving payments from Edge Bay into her bank account as dividends from her investment in the company. However, she described her failure to declare the company as a source of income as an error rather than an attempt to conceal the payments.
She also acknowledged that she still owed a building contractor several hundred thousand rand for work carried out at her property.
Mapisa-Nqakula said she had intended to use part of her pension to settle the outstanding renovation costs after leaving employment in 2019.
“One of my plans was to leave work in 2019, and if indeed I was released in 2019, one of my plans was that from my pension I was not only going to sort out the issue of the renovation but there were quite a lot of things I was going to sort out,” she testified.
However, she said legal expenses had depleted her pension funds, although she remained committed to paying the contractor.
She also disputed Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu’s testimony that builders had been waiting at her house for payment, rejecting suggestions that the businesswoman had helped finance the renovations.
Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu is a director of a company that supplied services to the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). She is a key state witness and alleges that she paid bribes to Mapisa-Nqakula in exchange for securing lucrative military contracts.
Mapisa-Nqakula told the court that their relationship had partly developed through shared experiences of the traditional spiritual initiation process known as ukuthwasa in the Eastern Cape.
The financial transactions between the two women remain central to the prosecution’s case.
Prosecutor Emile van der Merwe confronted Mapisa-Nqakula with bank records allegedly showing that her account was overdrawn by approximately R6,000 when she received an alleged payment of R400,000 from Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu in April 2019.
Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu previously testified that Mapisa-Nqakula had requested to meet her in her ancestral consultation room, referred to as “endumbeni”, which she understood to be a disguised request for money.
She alleged that Mapisa-Nqakula told her she had only R6,000 in her bank account and needed money to pay contractors working on her house.
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However, Mapisa-Nqakula said she was puzzled by how Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu knew about her financial position and denied disclosing her bank balance to her.
Mapisa-Nqakula faces 12 counts of corruption and one count of money laundering. The state alleges that she solicited R4.5 million in bribes from the SANDF contractor between 2016 and 2019, receiving approximately R2.1 million in cash.
She has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In September, Judge Mashudu Munzhelele dismissed her application for a discharge, ruling that the state had presented sufficient evidence for her to answer to the charges.
Wednesday’s proceedings marked her return to court after the trial was postponed in October due to ill health.
A warrant of arrest issued after she failed to appear in court on 2 October was cancelled following her return.
The trial is scheduled to continue until 20 November 2026.
