Former National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa Nqakula to appear in the PTA High Court on corru...

[00:00:00]Lisa's on the WhatsApp line. Hi, Mandy.

[00:00:02]The day all these corruption cases are finalized, the courts will be so quiet and empty. Hilarious. When is that going to happen? Unlikely. Well, speaking of which, the former National Assembly speaker, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, appearing in the Pretoria High Court on corruption charges today. The trial getting underway. Khomotso Mosebi, EWN reporter, has been there for us.

[00:00:23]Khomotso, good afternoon to you. So, the trial actually starting?

[00:00:26]>> Yes, Mandy. In fact, I I just want to respond to Lee there. I mean, I remember a time where we would have one court story in the bulletins. Do you remember that? And now we've got three, four, five sometimes court stories.

[00:00:37]>> show today is pretty much about that and inflation.

[00:00:40]>> Yes, so Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula back in the dock today. She was actually seated, um you know, not in the dock at the dock because she was in a court that is usually used uh for civil matters. So, there is no dock in that court. And so, she was seated where legal counsel usually sits. And she was there taking notes, um and yes, her her trial's officially started. It's been more than 2 years since she handed herself in at the Littleton police station. And there's 13 counts against her, 12 of corruption and one of money laundering.

[00:01:11]And the court uh today saw from the NPA a PowerPoint presentation. I don't know if you've ever seen that in court before, but prosecutors today, IDAC, uh had prepared a PowerPoint presentation with pictures um that were detailing all the allegations against her. And we heard uh the presiding judge today, uh Judge Mngqibisa-Thusi, questioned whether this was necessary, whether we needed all those pictures uh in court to paint this picture. And of course, the state feels strongly that yes, the court needed to to see exactly what she's being accused of. And I I found I found it to be really interesting how um she allegedly carried out this uh corruption, where she had been using code names or code words from her traditional calling as a sangoma uh to solicit the bribes. So, she would use terms like indumba, which is the traditional hut that is used by sangomas. And she'd use words like impepho, uh which is usually it's incense that is used by a sangoma. This was, according to the state, her way of saying, "I need more impepho. I need you in the indumba." Meaning, "I need money from you. I need you to pay me so that um yeah, so you can get these secure these contracts." So, yes, the allegations um are currently being tested in court, and we have uh General Bantu Holomisa on the witness stand because he's the main complainant in this case. He's the one that had uh initially pursued these >> the Deputy Minister of Defense, and she used to be the Minister of Defense.

[00:02:38]That's an interesting dynamic.

[00:02:40]>> Very interesting. He says that he approached uh the chairpersons of Parliament's uh Committee of Defense all those years ago, and they did nothing about it. Eventually, they just told him, "If you have a case, go to the police." And he says eventually he was approached by investigators from Idec, and that's why he's in court today.

[00:02:56]>> Fascinating. Oh, I love the detail around these corruption cases. Very interesting. Khomotso, thank you so much. Khomotso Mohlale on that case, and Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula's trial underway.