Johnathan Paoli
The North Gauteng High court has reserved judgement on an urgent application by Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula for an order that she can appear in the dock on a summons as opposed to being arrested over allegations of soliciting bribes from a defense contractor during her tenure as Minister of Defence.
The High court on Monday initially postponed the hearing to the late afternoon after Judge Sulet Potterill mentioned not having received the responding affidavit from the respondents; and then reserved judgement until next week Tuesday.
Last week, the NPA conducted a raid at the former National Assembly Speaker Mapisa-Nqakula’s home in Johannesburg in connection to corruption allegations of her receiving R2.3 million in bribes from a defense contractor during her ministerial tenure.
Following the raid, Mapisa-Nqakula took a leave of absence from her role as Speaker of the National Assembly.
In her application on Friday, Mapisa-Nqakula claimed irregularities in the investigation and by investigators. However, Investigating Directorate (ID) deputy director of public prosecutions Bheki Manyathi denied in his affidavit on Monday that there were irregularities and that the ID had undermined Mapisa-Nqakula’s dignity and good reputation.
“Any threat to these rights, which is denied, is mitigated by the fact that we have extended the courtesy to her to present herself in the accompany [sic] of her legal representative. I have stated that we would like to make the process as seamless as possible,” Manyathi said.
Advocate for the state, Makhosi Gwala, argued that allowing Mapisa-Nqakula to decide the terms of her prosecution would set a dangerous precedent and said the prosecuting authority never threatened to arrest Mapisa-Nqakula.
Gwala said the State asked the speaker to hand herself over to the authorities at a police station and then to appear at court in what it referred to as “a procedural step”.
He argued the Speaker and her lawyers have shown no reasonable arguments why she needed to urgently interdict the State from arresting her, and said their decision to force the State to respond to the case on Monday was an abuse of process and that no one can claim a right not to be arrested.
Advocate for the Speaker Reg Willis in his reply, accused the state of using terror tactics against his client.
“If this is how the Speaker of Parliament, the second most influential individual in our constitutional democracy, is treated well then the rest of us in this courtroom need not get our hopes too high,” Willis said.
Mapisa-Nqakula previously said the charges are being trumped up to sully her image in the run-up to the elections and to trigger the ruling party’s step-aside rule, as well as being subjected to a trial by media.
As Speaker of the National Assembly, Mapisa-Nqakula is the head of one of the three branches of the government, along with the President and the Chief Justice, and is fourth in line for the presidency should the President be unavailable.
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