CORRUPTION TRIAL : Mapisa-Nqakula’s bid to walk free fails as ‘cash and coded messages’ survive court test

An early victory for the National Prosecuting Authority and Investigating Directorate Against Corruption as the State’s corruption case against Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula survives her bid for a discharge, sending the former minister into the next stage of the trial.

Former National Assembly Speaker and defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula will have to answer the corruption and money laundering charges against her after the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Monday rejected her bid to have the case thrown out before she presents her defence.

Delivering judgment, Judge Mashudu Munzhelele found that the State had presented enough evidence to establish a prima facie case against Mapisa-Nqakula.

Munzhelele said the evidence, when considered as a whole, supported an inference that Mapisa-Nqakula knew the alleged payments constituted gratification and were connected to her official position, influence and ability to act.

“In my view, the evidence, considered cumulatively, constitutes a prima facie case… The requisite intention is properly inferred from the surrounding circumstances and the accused’s conduct.”

The judge said the State had therefore presented sufficient evidence for Mapisa-Nqakula to be called upon to answer the charges.

“The State has, therefore, established a prima facie case on the element of intention, sufficient to require the accused to answer,” Munzhelele said.

“It would, consequently, be inappropriate to discharge the applicant in terms of section 174 on the basis that the State did not produce direct evidence of subjective intention.”

Mapisa-Nqakula had asked the court to end the case after the State closed its case, arguing that the prosecution had failed to present enough evidence on which a reasonable court could convict her.

The court’s dismissal means she now has a case to answer and the trial will proceed to the defence stage.

Mapisa-Nqakula is facing 12 counts of corruption and one count of money laundering over allegations that she solicited and received about R4.55-million from Nombasa Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu, a defence contractor, between 2016 and 2019.

The defence’s application rested heavily on what it described as weaknesses and contradictions in the State’s case, particularly the evidence of Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu, the State’s key witness.

Arguing for the discharge, Mapisa-Nqakula’s lawyer, Siyabulela Mapoma SC, told the court that much of the evidence linking the former minister to the alleged payments came from Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu herself.

“All the other witnesses who testified about the giving of the money heard that from Nombasa. The source of the hearsay evidence was Nombasa,” the defence argued.