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Moroadi Cholota testifying on camera.
- Ace Magashule’s former personal assistant has reportedly implicated him directly in the requests for money from the murdered businessman Ignatius “Igo” Mpambani.
- Moroadi Cholota has become a state witness in his fraud and corruption case.
- She was his assistant when he was Prime Minister of the Free State.
Ace Magashule’s former personal assistant has reportedly implicated him directly in the requests for money from the murdered businessman Ignatius “Igo” Mpambani.
The state dropped a bomb that Moroadi Cholota had become a state witness, when he made his first appearance at Bloemfontein Magistrates Court on Friday.
He is charged in the R255 million asbestos audit corruption case, facing 21 counts of fraud, corruption and money laundering.
Cholota, who studies in the United States, was Magashule’s assistant when he was Prime Minister of the Free State. The National Prosecutor’s Office asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation to question her last month, and she revealed that she often asked Mpambani for money. purportedly on behalf of Magashule, the Sunday Times reported.
READ | Ace Magashule and his men declare war
Mpambani’s company, Diamond Hill Trading, was one of the main beneficiaries of a controversial contract to “audit” and “evaluate” asbestos-roofed houses in the Free State.
Magashule is accused of instructing Cholota several times to ask Mpambani for money.
The newspaper reported that the applications amounted to almost R800,000 and coincided with payments from the provincial housing department to Mpambani for the tender, allegedly despite the fact that no work was carried out.
Magashule’s alleged takeover of the tender came in the form of school fees for a daughter, electronic tablets and R250,000 for travel expenses for a delegation to Cuba, according to the State, reported News24.
READ | License plate, electronic tablets, trip to Cuba: Ace’s alleged asbestos bonsella
The indictment alleges that Magashule accepted a bonus of R53 550 in 2015, paid, at his request, for the tuition of the daughter of the former acting Free State judge, Refiloe Mokoena.
Around June 2015, Magashule allegedly accepted another bonus in the amount of R470,000, paid in its application to M-TAG Systems for the acquisition of 200 electronic tablets.
Between November 2015 and January 2016, Magashule allegedly accepted an additional R250 00.0 that was paid to Astra’s trip to cover the travel expenses of a delegation to Cuba.
Mpambani was killed in 2018, which was an alleged hit in Sandton, Gauteng, News24 previously reported.
The indictment alleges that Magashule did not report the alleged corrupt activities, as he was legally obliged to do as Prime Minister of the Free State, and that he had a financial interest in awarding the tender and subsequent payments.
While the money for the audit and asbestos removal was allegedly paid to the subcontractors, the asbestos had not yet been removed, according to testimony from the state’s capture commission of inquiry.
Requested R250,000 in an email
Most of the money was pocketed by the defendants, according to the state.
The other defendants in the matter include former Mangaung mayor Olly Mlamleli and former head of human settlements department Nthimotse Mokhesi, who awarded the contract.
During her testimony last year, Cholota told the chairman of the state’s capture investigation, Supreme Court Vice President Raymond Zondo, that when the prime minister’s office received funding requests from students and others, she and her other colleagues they would find help.
When asked about an email he sent to Mpambani on January 28, 2016, requesting payment of R250,000 from a travel agency, Cholota said that he did not remember what the money was for because it was not presented to him. no proof of payment.
Cholota also told the commission that when the prime minister’s office receives travel requests from artists or students, then it will request funds for business travel.
However, leading testing advocate Baitseng Rangata said she noted that most of the emails obtained by the commission show that Mpambani helped with funding. Cholota responded and said that Mpambani was not the only business person he approached.
Magashule, who will join his seven other co-defendants in the dock in February 2021, was released on bail of R200,000 on Friday.
According to a statement from the National Prosecutor’s Office, the matter is ready for trial and will be transferred to the Free State High Court in Bloemfontein at the next appearance in February, and that the postponement was necessary as more defendants are expected to be added. to court. charge sheet.
– Compiled by Jenna Etheridge
