An emotional Moroadi Cholota broke down after the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court granted her R2 500 bail.
Magistrate Estelle de Lange granted Cholota bail on Thursday, after she spent four months behind bars.
The former personal assistant of former Free State premier Ace Magashule faces fraud, corruption and money laundering charges related to the R255 million asbestos case. She will now join her co-accused for next year’s trial.
This as the State failed to persuade the court that she was a “flight risk”.
In handing down her judgment, De Lange said Cholota would be released immediately if she pays her bail. Cholota is expected to return to the magistrate’s court on Friday to have her case transferred to the high court.
De Lange said there needed to be hard evidence to show that someone was a flight risk and that he or she would seek to evade their trial.
The magistrate pointed out that Cholota had already spent four months behind bars and said it was clear that this trial would be a lengthy one.
Cholota has accused the State of charging her with fraud and corruption linked to the R255m asbestos scam case because she did not implicate her former boss in criminality.
In an affidavit submitted to the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, Cholota refused to disclose who was funding the legal costs of her failed Constitutional Court bid to urgently block her extradition from the US and her ongoing efforts to secure bail.
“I am advised that I have no duty to disabuse the State of whatever misguided notions it may have as to the payment of my legal fees. The State claims this is a logical question. I submit that there is nothing logical about this question or allegation, save to assert that, like any accused person, I have the right to legal representation,” she stated.
Earlier this year, Cholota launched an urgent application in the Constitutional Court seeking to block her extradition from the US.
However, the Concourt dismissed her application on the basis that no case had been made out for either urgency or direct access.
The former Free State Premier’s PA was sought in connection with a R255m contract awarded in 2014 to the Diamond Hill Trading and Blackhead Consulting joint venture by the Free State Department of Human Settlements.
At the time, the contract was intended for the removal of harmful asbestos roofs from homes in the province.
It was reported that government officials in the Free State received R27m in bribes related to this tender.
The Star