Africa-Press – South-Africa. Former Free State premier Ace Magashule has expressed outrage after the asbestos corruption case against him was postponed to January 26 next year.
The postponement comes after the court ruled that his former PA Moroadi Cholota’s extradition from the US was unlawful.
Speaking outside the Free State High Court, Magashule said the state was deliberately delaying the case to discourage him.
“It’s costly for us. We want to prove that we are innocent,” he said.
“They can’t always waste our time and postpone. We also have other commitments. They know they don’t have a case, they are trying to cook, and we will expose them. The intention is to break us and demoralise the people around us, to deal with our political careers and disrupt us all the time.”
Despite the postponement, Magashule said he is determined to fight the charges.
“We are standing resolute; we have fought against apartheid, and we will continue fighting against injustices. They can’t break us, we are not going to be cowards.
“I want my day in court. I don’t want this case to just be withdrawn; I want to be acquitted because I have not done anything wrong. The public knows me as a corrupt person. If I’m guilty of corruption or maladministration, I still want my day in court so that I expose what has not been exposed until today.”
Magashule is among those accused of corruption in the multimillion-rand asbestos tender. The court previously heard that he received R10m after Edwin Sodi’s company was paid R230m for the tender.
“I’ve always said this case is political. There’s no case against me. The state is playing games here. They know they don’t have a case and they’re still going to be embarrassed.”
He demanded transparency in the case, particularly regarding the audio recordings of Cholota.
“The NPA has hidden the recordings; they recorded Cholota for two days, there’s no way the tape recorder did not work. They knew what they were trying to say to Cholota, we still want that audio.”
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