Cholota's urgent application challenging charges dismissed with costs
Image: Mlungisi Louw/Volksblad
The Free State High Court on Monday dismissed an urgent application by the former personal assistant of former Free State premier Ace Magashule, Moroadi Cholota, to have fraud and corruption charges against her withdrawn.
Cholota wanted the court to declare that the charges against her were unconstitutional and invalid and that the state's conduct in her extradition from the US rendered it unlawful.
The charges Cholota is facing relate to a R255m asbestos contract awarded about six years ago by the Free State department of human settlements to the Blackhead Consulting joint venture to audit, assess and remove asbestos from homes in some of the Free State’s poorest areas.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) initially filed for Cholota, who was studying in the US, to be extradited in 2022 after linking her to a R255m asbestos tender corruption case.
The US court approved the extradition this year after it found the NPA had produced “sufficient evidence”.
Cholota landed in South Africa on August 8. She was granted bail of R2,500 by the Bloemfontein magistrate's court on August 15.
After arguments were heard from the lawyer representing the state and that of Cholota, judge Mareena Opperman ruled that Cholota's application to enrol the matter as one of urgency was dismissed with costs. She said the reasons for her order would follow in due course.
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