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"description": "Daily Maverick is an independent online news publication and weekly print newspaper in South Africa.\r\n\r\nIt is known for breaking some of the defining stories of South Africa in the past decade, including the Marikana Massacre, in which the South African Police Service killed 34 miners in August 2012.\r\n\r\nIt also investigated the Gupta Leaks, which won the 2019 Global Shining Light Award.\r\n\r\nThat investigation was credited with exposing the Indian-born Gupta family and former President Jacob Zuma for their role in the systemic political corruption referred to as state capture.\r\n\r\nIn 2018, co-founder and editor-in-chief Branislav ‘Branko’ Brkic was awarded the country’s prestigious Nat Nakasa Award, recognised for initiating the investigative collaboration after receiving the hard drive that included the email tranche.\r\n\r\nIn 2021, co-founder and CEO Styli Charalambous also received the award.\r\n\r\nDaily Maverick covers the latest political and news developments in South Africa with breaking news updates, analysis, opinions and more.",
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"contents": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the pretrial hearing in Ace Magashule’s corruption, fraud and money laundering case was postponed in the Bloemfontein high court on Wednesday, the suspended ANC secretary-general has hinted that he will continue to question the evidence of his former personal assistant, Moroadi Cholota.</span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1006257\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/fdfans6-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1679\" /> Former premier of Free State Ace Magashule and 15 other co-accused appeared in the high court in Bloemfontein. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla/Pool)</p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Magashule and his 15 co-accused, including five companies, made a brief court appearance on charges related to the R255-million Free State asbestos audit contract awarded to Edwin Sodi and the late Ignatius Mpambani’s Blackhead Consulting and Diamond Hill Trading joint venture, the large majority of which was allegedly siphoned off by the businessmen and their allies in government.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pretrial hearing was postponed to 19 October 2021 due to a number of the accused having recently changed lawyers or being in the process of applying for representation from Legal Aid. Prosecutors are also yet to submit a number of key notices needed before a trial date can be set.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Representing Magashule and Sodi, Laurance Hodes SC questioned the case against his clients.</span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1006242\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/fdcourtcase1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1510\" /> Former premier of Free State Ace Magashule and 15 other co-accused appeared in the high court in Bloemfontein over a R255-million tender. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla/Pool)</p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When Magashule and his co-accused first appeared in court in November 2020, prosecutors</span><a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-11-13-bail-granted-to-a-defiant-ace-magashule-who-faces-21-counts-of-corruption-and-fraud/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">revealed</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that Cholota, his personal assistant while he was Free State premier, had turned state witness. Cholota is</span><a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-12-06-was-moroadi-cholotas-role-more-than-ace-magashules-secretary/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reported</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to have asked Mpambani to make various payments to third parties, allegedly on behalf of Magashule, which prosecutors will argue was linked to the asbestos contract.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hodes argued that it was factually incorrect to consider Cholota a state witness as she did not implicate Magashule during her appearance at the Zondo Commission and because she had not signed a statement prepared for her regarding the corruption case.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The current status, my lord, is that they had drafted a statement from her or on her behalf but they haven't obtained one as yet,” Hodes told Judge Cagney Musi.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He said Cholota was “meant to be the so-called star witness and it would appear that she isn't a witness because she has not signed the statement to them”. He also claimed, “it would appear that she hadn’t turned”.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Prosecutor Johan de Nysschen said Cholota submitted a statement to the Zondo Commission, prepared by the same attorneys used by Magashule, then testified at the commission and later submitted another statement that was prepared with the assistance of Zondo’s investigating team, which hasn’t been signed.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While Hodes argued that the court should rule that Cholota will appear as a witness for the defence, meaning Magashule’s team can help prepare their witness, the judge said the matter should be decided when the case goes to trial.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Outside court, Magashule suggested the NPA had lied about turning Cholota as state witness and claimed the case was part of a political conspiracy to sideline him in the ANC.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“You will see that there is no case here. They just want to keep Magashule busy and away from the people but they will not succeed because I’m still living among the people of South Africa. The intention was to keep Magashule away from the ANC,” he told journalists following his court appearance.</span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1006251\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/fdfans5-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" /> Former premier of Free State Ace Magashule sparring with journalist Samkele Maseko after appearing with 15 other co-accused in the high court in Bloemfontein over a R255-million tender. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla/Pool)</p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After he was criminally charged, Magashule was forced to step aside as ANC secretary-general. The Gauteng high court dismissed his application to challenge the step-aside rule, which he is currently appealing.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Once we win this case, we will actually expose the political trial which was actually deliberate to keep Magashule in court, to keep Magashule away from the masses of our people, those who are hungry,” he said on Wednesday.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I have not done anything wrong. It’s all a waste of time by the NPA.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hodes SC also called for the charges against Sodi to be dropped. The high-flying businessman was</span><a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-09-30-first-zondo-arrests-hawks-nab-businessman-edwin-sodi-former-top-officials-over-ace-magashule-linked-asbestos-deal/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">arrested</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in September 2020 shortly after giving testimony at the Zondo Commission.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hodes said it was unconstitutional for the NPA to lay charges on the basis of Sodi’s testimony at the commission as self-incriminating answers at the inquiry</span><a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-09-07-legal-game-plan-the-lengths-jacob-zuma-will-go-to-evade-the-zondo-commission-of-inquiry/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">cannot</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> be used in a criminal trial.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">De Nysschen denied the claim: “We, me, the investigators, do not work for the Zondo commission, full stop. This case is not based on evidence led at the Zondo commission. The Zondo commission evidence is nice to have [but] this case is not based, and I say it again, I reiterate, is not based on evidence before Judge Zondo.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Judge Musi told Hodes the court might hear Sodi’s application before the trial begins “because what you are saying basically is that all the evidence against Mr Sodi is tainted and therefore none of the evidence against him can be used in any court of law because it is tainted.”</span>\r\n\r\n<i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">News24</span></i><a href=\"https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/magashule-in-court-ssa-report-raises-concerns-of-potential-flare-ups-of-violence-20210811?utm_source=24.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=_3781_+_37018925_+_63483_&utm_term=https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/magashule-in-court-ssa-report-raises-concerns-of-potential-flare-ups-of-violence-20210811\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reported</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that the State Security Agency, the DA and Free State Development Corporation had raised security concerns over Magashule’s court appearance, worrying that it could be used to reignite the type of unrest witnessed in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal after former president Jacob Zuma’s incarceration.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Only around 100 people gathered outside of court on Wednesday to support the former Free State premier. </span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daily Maverick</span></i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> witnessed two supporters carrying firearms.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“This whole saga has been characterised by political manipulation and we will prove it. The court will prove the SG’s innocence,” said Magashule supporter Babiki Dewet. </span><b>DM</b>",
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"description": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the pretrial hearing in Ace Magashule’s corruption, fraud and money laundering case was postponed in the Bloemfontein high court on Wednesday, the suspended ANC secretary-general has hinted that he will continue to question the evidence of his former personal assistant, Moroadi Cholota.</span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1006257\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-1006257\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/fdfans6-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1679\" /> Former premier of Free State Ace Magashule and 15 other co-accused appeared in the high court in Bloemfontein. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla/Pool)[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Magashule and his 15 co-accused, including five companies, made a brief court appearance on charges related to the R255-million Free State asbestos audit contract awarded to Edwin Sodi and the late Ignatius Mpambani’s Blackhead Consulting and Diamond Hill Trading joint venture, the large majority of which was allegedly siphoned off by the businessmen and their allies in government.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pretrial hearing was postponed to 19 October 2021 due to a number of the accused having recently changed lawyers or being in the process of applying for representation from Legal Aid. Prosecutors are also yet to submit a number of key notices needed before a trial date can be set.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Representing Magashule and Sodi, Laurance Hodes SC questioned the case against his clients.</span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1006242\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-1006242\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/fdcourtcase1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1510\" /> Former premier of Free State Ace Magashule and 15 other co-accused appeared in the high court in Bloemfontein over a R255-million tender. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla/Pool)[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When Magashule and his co-accused first appeared in court in November 2020, prosecutors</span><a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-11-13-bail-granted-to-a-defiant-ace-magashule-who-faces-21-counts-of-corruption-and-fraud/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">revealed</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that Cholota, his personal assistant while he was Free State premier, had turned state witness. Cholota is</span><a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-12-06-was-moroadi-cholotas-role-more-than-ace-magashules-secretary/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reported</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to have asked Mpambani to make various payments to third parties, allegedly on behalf of Magashule, which prosecutors will argue was linked to the asbestos contract.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hodes argued that it was factually incorrect to consider Cholota a state witness as she did not implicate Magashule during her appearance at the Zondo Commission and because she had not signed a statement prepared for her regarding the corruption case.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The current status, my lord, is that they had drafted a statement from her or on her behalf but they haven't obtained one as yet,” Hodes told Judge Cagney Musi.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He said Cholota was “meant to be the so-called star witness and it would appear that she isn't a witness because she has not signed the statement to them”. He also claimed, “it would appear that she hadn’t turned”.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Prosecutor Johan de Nysschen said Cholota submitted a statement to the Zondo Commission, prepared by the same attorneys used by Magashule, then testified at the commission and later submitted another statement that was prepared with the assistance of Zondo’s investigating team, which hasn’t been signed.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While Hodes argued that the court should rule that Cholota will appear as a witness for the defence, meaning Magashule’s team can help prepare their witness, the judge said the matter should be decided when the case goes to trial.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Outside court, Magashule suggested the NPA had lied about turning Cholota as state witness and claimed the case was part of a political conspiracy to sideline him in the ANC.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“You will see that there is no case here. They just want to keep Magashule busy and away from the people but they will not succeed because I’m still living among the people of South Africa. The intention was to keep Magashule away from the ANC,” he told journalists following his court appearance.</span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1006251\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-1006251\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/fdfans5-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" /> Former premier of Free State Ace Magashule sparring with journalist Samkele Maseko after appearing with 15 other co-accused in the high court in Bloemfontein over a R255-million tender. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla/Pool)[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After he was criminally charged, Magashule was forced to step aside as ANC secretary-general. The Gauteng high court dismissed his application to challenge the step-aside rule, which he is currently appealing.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Once we win this case, we will actually expose the political trial which was actually deliberate to keep Magashule in court, to keep Magashule away from the masses of our people, those who are hungry,” he said on Wednesday.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I have not done anything wrong. It’s all a waste of time by the NPA.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hodes SC also called for the charges against Sodi to be dropped. The high-flying businessman was</span><a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-09-30-first-zondo-arrests-hawks-nab-businessman-edwin-sodi-former-top-officials-over-ace-magashule-linked-asbestos-deal/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">arrested</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in September 2020 shortly after giving testimony at the Zondo Commission.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hodes said it was unconstitutional for the NPA to lay charges on the basis of Sodi’s testimony at the commission as self-incriminating answers at the inquiry</span><a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-09-07-legal-game-plan-the-lengths-jacob-zuma-will-go-to-evade-the-zondo-commission-of-inquiry/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">cannot</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> be used in a criminal trial.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">De Nysschen denied the claim: “We, me, the investigators, do not work for the Zondo commission, full stop. This case is not based on evidence led at the Zondo commission. The Zondo commission evidence is nice to have [but] this case is not based, and I say it again, I reiterate, is not based on evidence before Judge Zondo.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Judge Musi told Hodes the court might hear Sodi’s application before the trial begins “because what you are saying basically is that all the evidence against Mr Sodi is tainted and therefore none of the evidence against him can be used in any court of law because it is tainted.”</span>\r\n\r\n<i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">News24</span></i><a href=\"https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/magashule-in-court-ssa-report-raises-concerns-of-potential-flare-ups-of-violence-20210811?utm_source=24.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=_3781_+_37018925_+_63483_&utm_term=https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/magashule-in-court-ssa-report-raises-concerns-of-potential-flare-ups-of-violence-20210811\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reported</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that the State Security Agency, the DA and Free State Development Corporation had raised security concerns over Magashule’s court appearance, worrying that it could be used to reignite the type of unrest witnessed in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal after former president Jacob Zuma’s incarceration.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Only around 100 people gathered outside of court on Wednesday to support the former Free State premier. </span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daily Maverick</span></i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> witnessed two supporters carrying firearms.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“This whole saga has been characterised by political manipulation and we will prove it. The court will prove the SG’s innocence,” said Magashule supporter Babiki Dewet. </span><b>DM</b>",
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"summary": "The corruption, fraud and money laundering case against Ace Magashule and his 15 co-accused was postponed in the Bloemfontein high court on Wednesday to 19 October. The suspended ANC secretary-general has cast doubt over a key witness in the R255-million Free State asbestos contract case while businessman Edwin Sodi wants all charges dropped.",
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"search_title": "Ace Magashule questions whether former assistant has actually turned state witness",
"search_description": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the pretrial hearing in Ace Magashule’s corruption, fraud and money laundering case was postponed in the Bloemfontein high court on Wednesday, the suspended ANC s",
"social_title": "Ace Magashule questions whether former assistant has actually turned state witness",
"social_description": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the pretrial hearing in Ace Magashule’s corruption, fraud and money laundering case was postponed in the Bloemfontein high court on Wednesday, the suspended ANC s",
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Former premier of Free State Ace Magashule and 15 other co-accused appeared in the high court in Bloemfontein. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla/Pool)
Former premier of Free State Ace Magashule and 15 other co-accused appeared in the high court in Bloemfontein over a R255-million tender. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla/Pool)
Former premier of Free State Ace Magashule sparring with journalist Samkele Maseko after appearing with 15 other co-accused in the high court in Bloemfontein over a R255-million tender. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla/Pool)