Africa-Press – South-Africa. Former National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula broke down in the Pretoria high court on Monday during her appearance.
She was emotional in the accused box, her mouth trembling when the court addressed her before walking out while wiping away tears.
Judge Papi Mosopa postponed the matter to a provisional date of November 21.
Mapisa-Nqakula faces 12 charges of corruption and one charge of money laundering after allegedly receiving kickbacks for a defence contract when she was defence minister.
Her lawyer, advocate Graham Kerr-Phillips, confirmed they received the docket last week.
“We are working on a docket we have not finalised. We haven’t perused it and we’d like to see what information we have received,” he said.
Kerr-Phillips said the docket comprises 26 files.
The defence lawyer requested to adjourn the matter until November.
He also made a request to subpoena bank statements, and said the process is expected to take about six weeks.
Kerr-Phillips also wants to make a representation to the National Director of Public Prosecutions concerning all the documents which have been discovered to see if there is a case against Nqakula.
The corruption allegations were made by defence industry businesswoman Nombasa Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu, sole director of logistics company Umkhombe Marine which did business with the SA National Defence Force.
In February 2016 the company was awarded a contract valued at R104m.
According to the indictment, a few days after the awarding of the contract, Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu was told the contract had been suspended. To rectify the situation, she contacted people and was provided with Mapisa-Nqakula’s contact number, which she called for an investigation into the matter.
In November 2016 Mapisa-Nqakula allegedly asked the late secretary of defence Sam Gulube to approach Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu and ask her for R300,000, which the businesswoman handed in cash to Gulube a few days later.
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