Fraud accused Moroadi Cholota, the 37-year-old former personal assistant to Ace Magashule, has again denied the charges against her.
Cholota has filed an urgent application in the Bloemfontein High Court this week to declare the fraud and corruption charges against her as unconstitutional and invalid.
The matter will be heard on Monday, August 26.
She has further asked that the court declare her extradition from the United States unlawful.
The respondents are cited as the Director of Public Prosecutions in the Free State, The Minister of Police, and Captain Benjamin Calitz, who is the lead investigator in the Free State asbestos case.
Cholota is among 17 other accused linked to the 2014, R255million Free State asbestos project.
While studying political science in the US, South Africa made an application for her extradition.
She was successfully extradited and landed in this country on August 8, 2024.
Her bail of R2,500 was granted by the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on August 15, 2024, despite the State arguing that Cholota was a flight risk with very little respect for the law.
They argued that Cholota would evade her trial and had no intention of clearing her name, as she had mentioned in her bail application.
In her founding affidavit, Cholota said there was no reasonable or probable basis for the charges of fraud, money laundering, and corruption levelled by the State against her.
She said she began working as a public servant in 2009 as a receptionist at the Department of Police, Roads and Transport.
“My first interaction with the Office of the Premier was in mid-2012 when I approached the Office seeking financial assistance for tuition fees to complete my B-Tech degree, which I had had to drop out of due to financial constraints.
“I had been aware of the long-standing established practice of financially needy students in and around the Bloemfontein area approaching the Office of the Premier for assistance with the funding of their tuition and fees.”
She said she was unsuccessful and continued working. In 2013 Cholota was appointed Magashule’s personal assistant and she worked for him until 2018. She joined the office of the new premier, Sisi Ntombela until 2019.
She said she received a full scholarship to study Political Science at Bay Atlantic University which she “grabbed with both hands”.
She said a few months later she was summoned to appear before the State Capture Commission to give testimony and evidence on the bursary scheme in the Office of the Premier.
Cholota said she assisted the Zondo Commission in drawing the distinction between the bursary schemes and financial assistance schemes for students.
“I explained my duties within the Office of the Premier, I explained how it came to be that there was interaction with companies and businessmen.
“For this reason, the State Capture Commission ultimate Report found nothing untoward in relation to the bursary scheme and my role in that regard.”
She said after traveling back to the US she heard on national television that she would be a witness in the asbestos case, for the first time.
Cholota further alleged that policemen had arrived on her doorstep in September 2021, unannounced and accompanied by the Federal Investigations Bureau (FBI).
“I was escorted by the FBI agents into awaiting blacked-out vehicles and taken to the Sheraton Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland. Without any resistance nor delay, I had to adjust all the engagements I had for that day, and went with the FBI to the hotel for what I was informed was going to be a witness interview.”
She said she was questioned over two days.
“On the first day, at the Sheraton Hotel, the line of questioning differed starkly from the line of questioning I had been subjected to before the State Capture Commission.
“This surprised me as I was under the impression that that was what I was to be interviewed about.
“In fact, so different was the line of questioning, that it made me uncomfortable as the investigators were pressuring me to speak on facts I knew nothing about as though I did, and confirm knowledge of facts that were well beyond my station as a former PA.”
Cholota said she expressed her dissatisfaction and her opinion that she was being made to confirm facts she knew nothing about “in order to strengthen the case against my former boss, the former Premier of the Free State Province.”
She further says that if indeed the State had reasonable and probable grounds, they would have charged her initially with her co-accused in 2020 and not in response to a refusal to acquiesce to intimidation and torture.
Cholota also said she was never mentioned in the Public Protectors report.
“I ask that this Court declare that my prosecution lacks probable and reasonable cause.”
She asked that the court resolve this issue prior to the pre-trial proceedings.The matter is expected to start on September 11, 2024, in the Free State High Court in Bloemfontein.
The State has until Thursday close of business to submit replying affidavits.
-IOL
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