National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula says she is willing to hand herself over to the police from Wednesday to effect her arrest over allegations of corruption and bribery.
This follows the ruling by the high court in Pretoria on Tuesday, which dismissed her application to block her arrest, saying the application was “unreasonable” and “speculative”.
Mapisa-Nqakula may face up to 12 counts of corruption and bribery stemming from her time as minister of defence. She is accused of soliciting more than R4m in exchange for tenders from a former defence department contractor. The contractor has since turned state witness.
“Whatever the next step from now will be a matter of discussion and agreement between her lawyers and the National Prosecuting Authority [NPA],” Mapisa-Nqakula’s spokesperson, Mike Ramagoma, told Business Day.
“The speaker had agreed to co-operate with the NPA and that if she’s required to hand herself [over] or to appear in court she would do so, as long as that will be done when her lawyers are available since [they are] still dealing with another matter in Durban until April 3.
“From tomorrow, if she’s required to appear her lawyers will accompany her there,” Ramagoma said.
Delivering the ruling on Tuesday, judge Sulet Potterill also noted that if the court had accepted the speaker’s arguments that she be furnished with the NPA’s evidence against her before effecting an arrest, “the flood gates will be opened”, with other high-profile individuals seeking similar interdicts.
The speaker claimed in court that the arrest was an attempt to ruin her reputation and that of the ANC ahead of the elections. She also claimed she had been subjected to a “trial by media”.
The NPA can now begin proceedings to effect her arrest.
The high court in Pretoria also struck down the speaker’s request on urgency because the NPA gave Mapisa-Nqakula extraordinary time to prepare for the arrest and her constitutional rights to dignity and freedom of movement would not be impinged, as her legal representatives had argued before the court.
Mapisa-Nqakula took special leave from her role in parliament in March, vowing to clear her name.
Deputy speaker Lechesa Tsenoli has been appointed to act in her absence. Last week, he gave the green light to the DA’s application to have a motion of no confidence in the speaker debated in the house.
The debate, however, has not been scheduled in parliament’s programme.
“Parliament has a responsibility to hold the speaker to account, and we cannot be hamstrung by the ANC and its own processes in performing this role. Once a motion has been tabled, it has to be deliberated on and voted on without delay, the rules of the National Assembly demand,” said the DA’s chief whip, Siviwe Gwarube.
The ANC says it will “enforce its integrity and step-aside policies”, which require its members who are criminally charged to step aside temporarily from their positions in the party and from state institutions until the criminal matters are concluded.
The EFF and UDM have both called for the immediate arrest of the speaker.
“Mapisa-Nqakula’s assertion of her own significance as SA’s ‘third most important functionary’ is both arrogant and irrelevant in the face of serious allegations of corruption and money-laundering. We demand that the law enforcement agencies swiftly proceed with the arrest of Mapisa-Nqakula,” the EFF said in a statement.
UDM leader Bantu Holomisa said: “We wrote to the joint standing committee on defence on March 26 2021 about allegations that she received several payments totalling over R5m between 2017 and 2019, from at least one company that had contracts with the SA National Defence Force.
“I was told to take my accusations to the police. I did and here we are, waiting for Mapisa-Nqakula to do the right thing.”
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