Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula believes she was not treated fairly by the National Prosecuting Authority(NPA), but welcomes the fact that judgment will be delivered on April 2.
Mapisa-Nqakula’s special adviser Mike Ramagoma said this is what they had wanted as they indicated to the NPA that her lawyer would be available during that time.
The speaker sill believes she was innocent.
Ramagoma said they went to court because the NPA was not willing to agree on certain issues.
Mapisa-Nqakula was not running away from the legal processes, but it is the manner in which the matter was handled by the authorities, said Ramagoma, who was speaking on SABC.
He said the speaker was remaining strong despite all the drama surrounding the case and what has happened in the last few days.
“She is okay. She is holding strong, but as you can understand this is not easy for her. But she has confidence in the case. She has declared her innocence and she has confidence in her legal team,” Ramagoma said speaking to the public broadcaster.
He said the fact that they were allowed to ventilate the matter in court showed the judiciary was willing to listen to her case and that is what they wanted.
“We have said that we have full confidence in the judicial system and that we can get a hearing and ventilate our case. That is what happened,” he said.
They were happy that judgment will be delivered next Tuesday. That is what Mapisa-Nqakula had wanted.
They have said to the NPA all the time Mapisa-Nqakula will be available during that time.
“What we dealing with here is to say any person must be able to have a right to representation by an attorney or legal counsel of their choice,” Ramagoma said in the SABC interview.
If Mapisa-Nqakula’s lawyer was not available then arrangements have to be made by both sides.
“There was a discussion between the two parties and we were saying can the matter then be dealt with on the basis of the availability and consideration of matters that both parties are already engaged in and reasonably it was said that April 3 will be a suitable date for us. They never argued that April 3 was not suitable for them. Each time we asked them, will you will want to arrest then they said no, not today.“
Ramagoma said the NPA, however, was not playing open cards with them.
Mapisa-Nqakula needed to have a lawyer and he was only going to be available on April 3.
“She will need to have her attorney available in order for us to have any engagements, any meetings and any warning statements,. What would be the reason they would not give such an undertaking, In court for the first time they say there are no any plans for arrest,” said Ramagoma.
He also accused the NPA of leaking information about her arrest to the media.
This was the point raised Mapisa-Nqakula’s lawyers in court.
IOL Politics