Mapisa-Nqakula to request bail relaxation to travel to Botswana

Former National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula will apply for her bail conditions to be relaxed so she can apply for a passport to travel to Botswana.

Mapisa-Nqakula appeared in the Pretoria high court for her money laundering and corruption case as her matter resumed after a postponement in October for disclosure of the docket.

However, her legal team filed a notice for an opposed hearing for additional disclosure on Monday, which was meant to be heard on Thursday.

Prosecutor Bheki Manyathi said the state was not ready to proceed with the opposed hearing as Mapisa-Nqakula’s team submitted voluminous documents.

“The applicant filed heads of argument on Monday of 133 pages and references made of 128 decided cases and eight legal publications. So the heads themselves, in the state’s view, are voluminous ... The state said on Tuesday it would have been unlikely to have read it all and argue the matter today [Thursday],” Manyathi said.

It was agreed by all parties for the matter to be postponed to January 20.

In the meantime, Mapisa-Nqakula would approach the court for her bail conditions to be relaxed to apply for a passport to travel. Part of her bail conditions were to hand in her passport. However, she handed in her diplomatic passport which has since become invalid as she no longer holds diplomatic status, the court heard.

Manyathi said the application for the relaxation of bail conditions includes submitting an affidavit on the travel details.

“It needs an affidavit with the date of travel, the travel itinerary, where she will be going and the address. I understand she wants to travel to Botswana,” Manyathi said.

“Through Interpol, we do a check on the details provided. Once we have done our due diligence through Interpol and are happy with the details provided, we approach the judge in chambers and an order relaxing bail conditions is granted unopposed.

“If, after we do due diligence, we find issues, we file an affidavit that changes the whole picture.”

Mapisa-Nqakula faces 12 charges of corruption and one of money laundering for allegedly receiving kickbacks from a defence contract when she was defence minister. She is accused of receiving more than R2m after trying to solicit more than R4m in money from the contractor.

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