Moroadi Cholota, the ex-PA of former Free State Premier Ace Magashule, should know by the end of next month whether or not her prosecution is going ahead.
Mlungisi Louw/Gallo Images/Volksblad
- The Free State High Court previously upheld a special plea from Ace Magashule’s former assistant, Moroadi Cholota, challenging its jurisdiction to try her for fraud and corruption.
- On Friday, the Constitutional Court sent the special plea back to the High Court for reconsideration.
- New arguments are now set to take place on 3 February.
Former Free State premier Ace Magashule’s erstwhile assistant, Moroadi Cholota, should know whether or not her prosecution is going ahead by the end of next month.
Cholota and her co-accused in the fraud and corruption trial relating to the asbestos removal tender saga, which include her former boss as well as controversial businessman Edwin Sodi, were back in the Free State High Court in Bloemfontein on Monday.
The court previously upheld a special plea challenging its jurisdiction to try Cholota on the basis that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) – and not the justice minister – had requested her extradition from the United States in 2024.
On Friday, however, the Constitutional Court found that that was not enough to nullify Cholota’s prosecution, and sent the matter back to the High Court to consider the other grounds on which she had based her special plea.
Against that backdrop, the matter was postponed to early February for further arguments.
The High Court is expected to deliver a new ruling two weeks after that.
Cholota has been given until 28 January to file her heads of argument, and the State has been given until 2 February.
Arguments will be presented on 3 February, and judgment is expected to be handed down on 18 February.
READ | UPDATE: Extradition illegal, but trial to continue against Magashule aide – ConCourt
Meanwhile, the main trial has been postponed to 2 March.
The case centres on a failed R255-million project to eradicate asbestos roofing in low-income homes in the Free State.
The work was awarded, allegedly irregularly, to a joint venture involving Sodi’s company, Blackhead Consulting, and Magashule and other government officials allegedly received fat kickbacks in the process.
After repeated delays, the trial finally got under way last year.
However, Cholota then raised the special plea, which led to a trial-within-a-trial, and the proceedings ground to a halt.
Initially identified as a State witness, Cholota was ultimately extradited from the US, where she was previously studying, to stand trial as an accused.
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On the State’s version, she refused to cooperate with Hawks officers who interviewed her in 2021.
In her special plea, Cholota maintained that her prosecution was effectively punishment for not implicating Magashule, and said the State “lied to/ misrepresented to US authorities that there was reasonable and probable cause” for the charges against her as well as that she was a “fugitive from justice,” a “flight risk,” and part of a syndicate.
It was a May 2024 ruling that the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) handed down in a challenge brought by US-based artist Jonathan Schultz against his looming extradition on charges related to the theft and sale of unwrought precious metal, which saw Cholota’s special upheld in the end. While extradition requests have historically always been made by the NPA, the SCA essentially found that that power fell to the Justice Minister.
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In its ruling on Friday, the Constitutional Court in the main agreed with the SCA.
It found, however, that it did not automatically mean the High Court had no jurisdiction to try Cholota, and said “a court is only divested of its criminal jurisdiction in cases where the exercise thereof would bring the administration of justice into disrepute”.
