Mapisa-Nqakula graft case postponed to December

Mapisa-Nqakula made a brief appearance in court on Thursday morning.

This after the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court moved the matter to the High Court for a pre-trial conference during her last court appearance in July.

Mapisa-Nqakula is charged with 12 counts of corruption and one of money laundering, dating back to her term as Minister of Defence - when she is alleged to have taken kickbacks.

The charges relate to her time as the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, during which time she allegedly solicited and received kickbacks amounting to R4.5 million from a defence contractor.

The allegations against Mapisa-Nqakula were made by well-known defence industry businesswoman Nombasa Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu - who is the sole director of the logistics company Umkhombe Marine.

The company did business with the South African National Defence Force.

Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu claimed she paid bribes totalling some R2 million to Mapisa-Nqakula.

Judge Aubrey Ledwaba postponed the matter as the defence had not been privy to all the contents of the court docket.

"I've been informed by your council and the state council that there are certain sections of the docket that were not disclosed to your defence council, so your council want to make an application for the disclosure of sections B and C of the case of the docket.

"I'm not satisfied about this arrangement because these are the things that should have been done in the lower court before this matter is transferred to this court. Matters must be transferred to this court when they are trial-ready.

"In the interest of justice, I'm amenable to grant this request. Your council is going to file a substantive application for such a request on the 28th of October, 2024. The state is going to answer to that request on the 15th of November, 2024.

"If there are issues raising the answering affidavit that your council needs to address, you must file their reply on the 25th of November 2024.  Your council and the state councillors also agreed to exchange arguments by the 2nd of December.”

Mapisa-Nqakula will return to court on 5 December. 

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