All eyes will be on the High Court in Pretoria this morning, Monday (25 March 2024), where National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula will be fighting to prevent her arrest for allegedly accepting bribes from a contractor when she was Defence Minister.
The Speaker’s highly publicised “imminent arrest” for allegedly accepting kickbacks of over R2 million rand from a contractor was initially reported to take place on Friday, (22 March 2024).
Mapisa-Nqakula, who denies the allegations and has taken special leave to deal with them, filed an urgent interdict to prevent her arrest.
At the weekend, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Advocate Mthunzi Mhaga said the Investigating Directorate would oppose the application as “we believe it is baseless and has no merit”.
Commenting on the matter to reporters, President Cyril Ramaphosa said: “As I’ve always said, we have processes, institutions, well-geared and independent institutions, and in the end we must rely on those institutions to do their work.
“When we give them space and the opportunity to do their work, then we will be successful.
“As far as I am concerned, the Speaker herself has said that she is cooperating. That in itself must say something to all of us.
“We’re dealing here with allegations that have been made, with a Speaker who says she’s cooperating and from a governance point of view… she said I’m taking special leave and the process must then unfold.
“It’s already known that when it reaches a particular point, certain actions need to be taken. There’s no running away from that.”
The Speaker’s party, the governing African National Congress (ANC), has resolved to only act as “facts unfold”.
This morning, Mapisa-Nqakula, whose Joburg house was raided last week in a search and seizure operation by the NPA, will tell the court why she should not be arrested.
In court papers seeking an urgent interdict to stop her arrest, the Speaker says: “What I submit that the court ought to halt, by granting the relief I seek, is the one-sided flood of information leaked to the media, without disclosing the flaws and manipulations of procedure inherent in the State’s case, while not only prejudicing me through trial by media but denying me my constitutionally protected rights to fair process and trial.”
The respondents in the matter include; The National Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Shamila Batohi, Police Minister General Bheki Cele, Advocate Bheki Manyathi, Chief Investigator Dylan Perumal, and Sergeant Suneel Bellochun.
In the court papers, Mapisa-Nqakula adds: “The ultimate purpose of this application is to protect my constitutional rights inter alia to freedom, and dignity, including my rights to good name and reputation and self-esteem as well as to pursue a vocation of my choosing.
“It Is trite that a criminal trial cuts across a number of an accused person’s fundamental rights.
“Attendance at the trial, even if on the ball, limits freedom of movement, and even the right to liberty is curbed to an extent.”
The Speaker said every time an accused person is compelled to appear in the dock, his or her liberty is further inhibited, and human dignity further eroded.
“In my case, my position and status as Speaker of the National Assembly of Parliament and member of the ruling ANC, with the so-called ‘step aside rule’ carries the further humiliation of publicity and public speculation as well as the limitation on the continuation of my office and vocation,” Mapisa-Nqakula said.
While there have been calls from opposition parties for her immediate resignation, the 67-year-old Speaker has already indicated that she will not run for office after the 29 May 2024 general elections.
This article was originally published by TheBulrushes, our sister publication. It is republished by TechFinancials under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence. Read the original article
