Ace Magashule’s former PA, Moroadi Cholota, suffered another blow when her attempt to have the charges against her declared unconstitutional and unlawful failed.
This week, the Free State High Court dismissed her urgent application to withdraw the fraud and corruption charges against her.
She also challenged the legality of her extradition from the US where she has been studying since 2020.
Cholota was charged with fraud, corruption and money laundering related to the R225 million asbestos case after she allegedly backtracked on her agreement to testify against Magashule.
In July, she appealed to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to stop her extradition.
In her submission, she told Blinken that she has been shocked by the questions the investigators asked. She had begun to suspect that the questions were politically motivated and geared towards having her attest to false evidence and facts against the former ANC secretary-general.
Her family made the same claims after her arrest in the US in April.
The family said Cholota had been harassed in political battles for years and that her arrest was absurd and sounded illegal. The charges had come after she had indicated that she was not a State witness.
The family added that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) had announced that without consulting her.
In her founding affidavit, Cholota confirmed her family’s claims and said she had found out that she would be a State witness after the prosecutor had announced it on national television.
She said she had never been contacted by the NPA, prosecutors and investigators.
Cholota said that in an email to the State prosecutor, she had said: “I feel it was unfair to me when the prosecutor announced in court and in front of TV cameras that I am a State witness without my knowledge. I was nowhere near the supply chain management (SCM) of the Department of Human Settlements.”
“I feel like you are ordering me to be a witness on something that I have no intimate knowledge about. This is seriously worrying me and I don’t feel safe anymore especially since I was also visited the FBI here in the USA.”
She said the State prosecutor had replied that she would basically be required to testify about what she had said in her evidence before the State Capture Commission. Cholota added that the prosecutor had said she would not be expected to testify about aspects she did not know about.
She said the NPA investigators had threatened, intimidated and coerced her, warning that if she continued not to confirm facts and refused to make statements against Magashule, they would bring charges against her and pool her with the rest of the co-accused.
Cholota said the police investigators and State prosecutors’ conduct had fallen short of the Constitution.
“I confirm that the primary basis for this application before this honourable court is the above section, as it is submitted that the conduct of the investigators and that of the NPA in my case is tantamount to conduct that is inconsistent with the Constitution and therefore invalid. I submit that the prosecution arising out of such an unconstitutional conduct must be set aside,” she said.
Cholota said her prosecution had been brought after she had been subjected to threats, intimidation, coercion and mental torture and was a continuation of such aims. She said the State had not denied the allegations when confronted in her bail application.
“I submit that if indeed the state had reasonable and probable grounds, they would have charged me initially with my co-accused in 2020 and not in response to a refusal to acquiesce to intimidation and torture,” she said, adding that the US, in its extradition order, had found that reasonable cause could not be established to sustain the charges on money laundering.
The former PA told the court that there was sufficient factual basis to support a declaration of constitutional invalidity of the prosecution and a finding that the South African criminal court did not possess the requisite jurisdiction in light of the material misrepresentations made by the State to officials in the US.
Cholota will join her co-accused for next year’s trial. The other accused are business mogul Edwin Sodi, former director of the National Department of Housing Thabane Zulu, former Mangaung mayor Olly Mlamleli, Nthimotse Mokhesi, Mahlomola Matlakala, Sello Radebe, Abel Kgotso Manyeki, Nozipho Molikoe, Albertus Venter and Margaret-Ann Driedericks.
Sodi’s company, Blackhead Consulting, and three other companies – 602 Consulting Solutions, Mastertrade 232 and Ori Group – are also the accused.