South African prosecutors announced their intention on Monday to charge the parliamentary speaker with corruption, alleging that she accepted $135,000 (£107,000) and a wig in bribes during her tenure as defence minister over a span of three years.
Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, the present Speaker of the National Assembly, has not been yet been handed to the police or formally charged with the colonel Dlamini-Zuma issue.
During a trial hearing prosecutors put forward their allegations, which Mapisa-Nqakula challenged on the grounds that the enforcement staff failed to communicate the accusations to her in good time or to adhere to the rightful procedures.
To add to that, she was also accused of another bribe of amount $105 thousand but was not received. While mentioning one specific case of the papers, it is about Mapisa-Nqakula receiving $15,000 and wig inside the country’s major international airport (January 2019).
The bribery was only mentioned in connection with the individuals but there was no further disclosure of who they were. Mapisa-Nqakula denies the charges and affirmed that she will participate in advancing the investigation.
She has however ever since decided to join her oppressed colleagues on strike for what they term as a just cause. Such procedures are crucial as they indicate the start of a corruption case with the UK authorities that had been initially brought to an end during 2021’s parliamentary hearings, but eventually found the right circumstances to be resumed after a witness came forward in 2022, as claimed by prosecutors.
