By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Bloemfontein Magistrates Court has granted the former Free State Premier Ace Magashule’s ex-personal assistant Moroadi Cholota bail of R2500.
Cholota appeared before court for the third time this week as her bail application was postponed twice. She has been in custody since she was extradited from the United States last Thursday.
She is a co-accused alongside Magashule and others in a R225-million asbestos scandal that included charges of fraud, corruption, theft and racketeering.
State prosecutor Johannes de Nysschen argued that he had a very firm view that Cholota is a flight risk and should not be granted bail.
However, Cholota’s lawyer argued that she is not a flight risk as all her travel documents were left behind in the United States when she was extradited, and that all her co-accused in the matter are out on bail, so she deserves to be released too.
Delivering her ruling, Magistrate Estelle de Lange said, Cholota will be released immediately if she pays her bail, but she will return to the court on Friday morning to have her case transferred to the High Court.
She ordered Cholota to appear in court for all of the asbestos case hearings, and to report to the police every Monday and Friday.
De Lange said, she is satisfied that granting Cholota bail is in the interests of justice.
She said there needs to be hard evidence to show that someone is a flight risk and that he or she would seek to evade their trial.
The magistrate further emphasised that should she fail to abide by the conditions her bail will be forfeited to the State and she will be kept in custody.
Cholota’s case was set for Monday after she was arrested on Thursday, 8 August, when she arrived at Oliver Tambo International Airport. On Thursday, 8 August 2024, the SAPS confirmed Cholota was escorted by Interpol and South African police officers while she was being extradited to South Africa.
She has been in detention since being arrested in the US on 12 April 2024 and brought to court. A US court heard that South African authorities had charged her with four counts of fraud and five counts of corruption, in violation of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act.
Following the delay, the asbestos case was heard again in June 2024. At this point, the court ruled that the trial date would be April to June 2025, even if Cholota had not been extradited by that date.
Cholota’s extradition was approved on 7 June by Judge Erin Aslan of the Maryland District Court.
Cholota is a co-accused alongside Magashule and others in a R225-million asbestos scandal that included charges of fraud, corruption, theft and racketeering.
The other co-accused are businessman Edwin Sodi, former director-general of the national Department of Housing Thabane Zulu, as well as Nthimotse Mokhesi, Mahlomola Matlakala, Sello Radebe, Adel Kgotso Manyeki, Nozipho Molikoe, Albertus Venter, Margaret-Ann Diedericks and former MEC and Mangaung mayor Olly Mlamleli.
In addition, companies charged include Blackhead Consulting, 602 Consulting Solutions, Mastertrade 232 and Ori Group.
Cholota’s testimony before the State Capture Commission in late 2019 is key to this trial, which revealed much about the intermediary role she played in requesting financial favours from people like the slain Igo Mpambani, on behalf of her boss.