Johnathan Paoli
Former Parliament Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has been granted bail in her corruption case at the Pretoria Magistrates Court.
Mapisa-Nqakula, who has resigned as Speaker, made her appearance before the court on Thursday where she faces 10 charges of corruption and money-laundering.
Presiding Magistrate Anna Oosthuizen said she is satisfied that Mapisa-Nqakula is not a flight risk and would cooperate with the police.
Oosthuizen said the court considered Mapisa-Nqakula’s advanced age, health and personal circumstances in her ruling concerning a bail application.
Prosecutor Bheki Manyathi earlier explained the reasons why the State was not opposing bail.
“The applicant handed herself over to law enforcement through her attorney. The other reason we are not opposing bail is the seniority in terms of the age of the applicant. It is a fact of life that as you grow older, you tend to have health issues, so we accept the issue of hypertension, and medication is needed, too,” Manyathi said.
The court granted the former speaker R50 000 bail, and set her bail conditions as handing over her passport and having no direct or indirect contact with the state witnesses.
After her resignation on Wednesday, Mapisa-Nqakula handed herself over at the Lyttelton Police Station in Centurion early on Thursday morning.
The charges the former speaker faces include corruption and money laundering, on allegations of acceptance of bribes to the value of R4.5 million, from SANDF contractor Nombasa Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu, during her tenure as the Minister of Defence.
The UDM welcomed the arrest but party leader Bantu Holomisa said that Mapisa-Nqakula should have handed herself over, from the beginning.
Holomisa said this entire process would not have happened if the UDM had not pursued the matter in 2021, and satisfied itself of prima facie evidence relating to the allegations.
He criticised Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee of Defence chairperson Vusumuzi Xaba’s alleged lack of serious consideration of the allegations and said this has not gone unnoticed.
“President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Always Nurturing Corruption now with egg on their faces after Mapisa-Nqakula’s lateral deployment from Minister to Speaker,” Holomisa said.
The former speaker previously said that her renunciation was in no way a sign or admission of blame regarding the charges being leveled against her.
The court postponed the case to 4 June, to allow for the addition of a second accused in the docket.
Meanwhile, the ruling party’s integrity commission has announced the conclusion of its investigation into Mapisa-Nqakula and said its report was submitted to the secretary-general’s office.
The report is expected to be tabled at the next national working committee of the ANC.
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