FORMER Free State premier Ace Magashule’s erstwhile personal assistant, Moroadi Cholota, appealed to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to stop her extradition to face charges relating to the R255 million asbestos tender.
In her submission to Blinken, dated July 1, 2024, Cholota told Blinken she was taken aback by the many questions asked by the investigators, and often questioned their relevance.
She also said that in addition to questioning the relevance of the line of questioning and questions, she stated to the investigators that she was starting to suspect that the questioning was politically motivated and geared towards having her attest to false evidence/facts against the ex-ANC secretary-general.
The investigators accused Cholota of being unco-operative and threatened her with charges.
The National Prosecuting Authority charged Cholota with multiple counts of fraud, corruption and money laundering in June this year.
In her written submission, she said this was primarily due to her refusal to question as a state witness, to attribute specific actions to Magashule and not because she was implicated or had committed those crimes.
Soon after being questioned by investigators, Cholota was informed she was not very cooperative, especially when pushed for more details or further answers.
“It is stated quite clearly that following the first day of questioning (and while she was still billed as a state witness) the investigators and the prosecutor in the matter discussed the possibility of the state charging her (Cholota) criminally alongside some of the other accused if she did not provide full answers to us,” she explained.
Cholota added that up until her questioning by investigators, she had not been named or implicated in any of the multitude of reports and investigations by various state institutions such as the Special Investigating Unit, the Auditor-General, the Public Protector and the Commission of Inquiry into state capture.
She explained that she was never charged together with the now-co-accused in the criminal matter up until the point of her questioning as a state witness, but was charged with corruption, money laundering, and fraud purely as retaliation and in a bid to inflict punishment on her for her failure to cooperate.
According to Cholota, the clear and unambiguous evidence of investigating officers unlawfully threatening and intimidating a state witness into providing false evidence/testimony against a then-politically prolific individual, investigating officers and prosecutors colluding amongst themselves as to the punishment that would be meted out to her if she failed to co-operate with them.
She said they then subjected her to the cruellest and most inhumane treatment and punishment when she failed to co-operate with them in the manner they desired, namely: charging her with the serious crimes of multiple counts of fraud, corruption and money laundering.
Cholota maintained that the so-called evidence in support of the charges against her were e-mails that she sent in the ordinary course of her employment as Magashule’s personal assistant using the official email address assigned to the then-premier.
”This sending of emails on behalf of her boss, which subsists of no more than 5-10 e-mails, was trumped up and termed in the request for extradition as the ‘facilitating of kickbacks’, despite there being no concrete proof thereof beyond what the e-mails represent,” reads her submission.
Cholota was granted R2 500 bail earlier this week by the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court following her extradition last week after she failed in her bid to prove that the charges against her were politically motivated and that her prosecution and ulterior motivations in relation to the request for her extradition rendered her prosecution and extradition unfair.
Magashule, controversial businessman Edwin Sodi, Cholota, several companies and former senior government officials are due back at the Free State High Court in between April and June next year for their trial for various charges including corruption, fraud and money laundering.
manyane.manyane@inl.co.za loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za