Ace Magashule’s former personal assistant Moroadi Cholota is expected to land in South Africa on Thursday afternoon after being successfully extradited from the US.
National South African Police Service (SAPS) spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe confirmed that Cholota will arrive in the country on Thursday.
She is being escorted by the SAPS Interpol extradition unit.
Mathe said police would provide an update later today.
Cholota’s extradition process began over two years ago.
She was arrested in April this year and appeared in a US court.
Her extradition was granted on June 7, 2024 by the United States Districts Court.
According to papers seen by IOL, Cholota was arrested on April 12, 2024 and appeared in court three days later.
They said that South African authorities had charged her with four counts of fraud and five counts of corruption.
In their ruling, two judges said that the evidence brought before the court was sufficient to justify Cholota’s commitment for trial.
Magashule, a former ANC secretary-general, is facing 21 counts of fraud, money laundering and corruption relating to a R255 million asbestos contract in 2014.
Cholota worked as his assistant during his tenure as the Premier of the Free State.
Following Magashule’s arrest, Cholota was supposed to be a State witness in the trial, but apparently backtracked, and will now face the same charges.
The State alleges that fraud to the value of R255 million was committed in the appointment of two companies, one from Gauteng, Blackhead Consultants, in 2014, as service provider to the Department of Human Settlements in the Free State for the assessment and removal of asbestos roofs and/or housing, IOL reported.
“The two companies sub-contracted two other separate companies, of which one allegedly did the work for only R21 million,” NPA spokesperson Sipho Ngwema said in 2020.
“An amount of R230 million was paid to the initial contracting company, and Edwin Sodi, the director of the company, Blackhead Consultants, who is still attempting to secure in court the ’remaining’ payment of the rest of the money, which is R25 million,” said Ngwema.
Cholota also appeared before the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.
IOL News