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Ace Magashule running out of wiggle room after US court approves extradition of his PA

Ace Magashule running out of wiggle room after US court approves extradition of his PA
Moroadi Cholota, Ace Magashule‘s former personal assistant, fighting her extradition from the US. (Photo: Screenshot)
Vincent Cruywagen
By Vincent Cruywagen
12 Jun 2024
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In 2019, Moroadi Cholota, personal assistant to former ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, spilled the beans before the State Capture Commission on a shady R225m asbestos contract. She was a witness, but later decided not to cooperate. Last Friday, a US District Court declared her extraditable. She is appealing against the ruling.

On Friday 14 June, Ace Magashule and 17 co-accused will appear in the Bloemfontein High Court on charges stemming from alleged corruption in a R225-million asbestos audit project.

Magashule, who started his own party, the African Congress of Transformation, is eligible to become an MPL in the Free State. This is after his party obtained 19.7% of the vote and gained a single seat on the Free State provincial ballot. But if he’s convicted on the asbestos charges, he will have to resign.

Magashule and the other accused, including companies, are facing more than 70 counts of corruption related to money laundering.

magashule cholota Moroadi Cholota, Ace Magashule’s former personal assistant. (Photo: Screenshot)



Moroadi Cholota, the former personal assistant (PA) of Magashule, faces at least five charges including fraud and corruption stemming from the asbestos project. She is accused number seven on the indictment.

The other co-accused are businessman Edwin Sodi; former director-general of the national Department of Human Settlements Thabane Zulu; Nthimotse Mokhesi; Mahlomola Matlakala; Sello Radebe; Adel Kgotso Manyeki; Nozipho Molikoe; Albertus Venter; Margaret-Ann Diedericks and former MEC and Mangaung mayor, Sarah “Olly” Mlamleli.

In addition, Blackhead Consulting, 602 Consulting Solutions, Mastertrade 232, Ori Group and other companies are also facing charges.

On Tuesday, the National Prosecuting Authority’s Mthunzi Mhaga said: “NPA welcomes the decision of the US District Court. We are confident in the strength of the state’s case and will ensure all relevant evidence is presented during the trial.”

The asbestos trial was scheduled to begin on 14 April in the Bloemfontein High Court. However, among the reasons the matter was postponed was because Cholota was under arrest in the US at the time.

Free State NPA spokesperson Mojalefa Senokoatsane said the case had also been postponed at the request of the defence.

“One of the accused did not have legal representation. Sarah Mlamleli was sick and could not be in court. The June 14 appearance will be more about the defence state of readiness and the parties agreeing on a suitable date for pre-trial and trial date,” Senokoatsane added.

The matter in the Bloemfontein High Court was then postponed to Friday, 14 June 2024. Friday’s proceedings are also likely to be postponed after it emerged that Cholota is appealing against the judgment finding her extraditable. 

The judgment handed down on 7 June by Judge Erin Aslan of the Maryland District Court has paved the way for Cholota to be extradited.

On Wednesday, Chrispin Phiri, spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice and Correctional Services, said: “Cholota was found extraditable; just like in our legal system, she has a right to either appeal or make representations to the Secretary of State in the US, which she indicated she would do.

“She will be extradited once that process is concluded and if it is in favour of South Africa.”

According to her lawyer Piet Tibane, his client has asked for direct and urgent access to the Constitutional Court to challenge the request to extradite her from the US.

He said his client wanted the apex court to rule that the extradition request was invalid and unconstitutional and that the arrest warrant should be cancelled.

Cholota extraditable


On 12 April 2024, Cholota was arrested in the United States and brought to court. The allegations against her indicated that South African authorities had charged her with four counts of fraud and five counts of corruption in violation of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act.

On 7 June, the Maryland District Court heard the extradition case. 

Judge Aslan said: “Cholota is alleged to have knowingly engaged in this scheme by using her government position to facilitate corrupt financial transactions.

“South Africa’s extradition request is accompanied by indictments, sworn statements and affidavits, a forensic audit, emails, and many other documents, all of which amply support a finding of probable cause to believe both that Cholota is the individual named in the pending South African indictment and that she committed the charged offences.”

Aslan further found that “the evidence before this court is sufficient to justify Cholota’s commitment for trial had the offences with which she is charged been committed in the United States.

“Cholota is sufficient to sustain the charges under the provisions of the proper treaty and, accordingly, she is extraditable and that she be committed to the custody of the United States Marshal until the Secretary of State [Antony Blinken] renders a decision on extradition,” the judgment reads.

Why extradition of Cholota was sought


The role of Magashule’s former PA was first brought to light by the Zondo Commission on 6 December 2019. She provided details about the R225-million asbestos scandal and the alleged money trail.

Cholota’s testimony revealed much about the intermediary role she played in requesting financial favours from people like Ignatius “Igo” Mpambani on behalf of her boss. Mpambani was subsequently murdered.

She was summoned to appear before the commission after being singled out by the former MEC for Economic Development in the Free State, Mxolisi Dukwana, as one of the staffers who was privy to Magashule’s allegedly shady dealings with Mpambani.

Pieter-Louis Myburgh’s explosive book, Gangster State, follows a trail of emails sent between Cholota and Mpambani. In one instance, Cholota sent an email to Mpambani providing banking details belonging to a Bloemfontein-based travel agency, Astra Travels.

This email coincided with a trip that Magashule had undertaken to Cuba with fellow officials from the province – a trip that would later emerge as having been paid for with taxpayers’ money.

The trip took place in November 2015. Mpambani received a R10-million payment on 28 January 2016 from the housing department, just two months after the trip.

The Bloemfontein High Court learnt in November 2021 that a warrant for Cholota, who was studying in the United States, had been signed. This came after she initially agreed, but then refused to be a State witness in the case against Magashule and others.

Johan de Nysschen, the State advocate at the time, informed the court that Cholota was a State witness. However, Magashule wanted her to testify for the defence.

“She is not cooperating… we’re going to charge her because there’s evidence implicating her,” the NPA’s Mhaga said at the time.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Ace Magashule’s former assistant Moroadi Cholota’s choice: Come back voluntarily or be extradited from US”

Charges

The scope of the asbestos saga became clear in November 2020 when Scorpio’s Pieter-Louis Myburgh reported that a warrant of arrest had been issued for Magashule in connection with the R255-million asbestos audit contract in the Free State.

The State’s case against Magashule is detailed by the NPA in a 59-page indictment.

The asbestos contract relates to a joint venture between Edwin Sodi’s Blackhead Consulting and the late Mpambani’s Diamond Hill Trading 74, which secured the lucrative contract from the Free State Department of Human Settlements in 2014. 

Magashule was arrested and appeared in the Bloemfontein Magistrates’ Court on 10 November 2020. He was released on R200,000 bail.

Magashule and his co-accused are charged with corruption, fraud and money laundering stemming from irregular contracts to audit houses for traces of toxic asbestos. The contracts – amounting to R255-million – were issued by the Free State government under the premiership of Magashule in 2015.

Court appearance


In August 2021, the matter against Magashule and his co-accused was postponed in the Bloemfontein High Court to 19 October 2021. This was after Magashule hinted that he would continue to question the evidence of Cholota, while Sodi wanted all charges dropped.

In December 2021, prosecutors dismissed Magashule’s claim that they had no case against him, saying that he had instructed or knew of his personal assistant’s requests for payments from his co-accused.

Navilla Somaru, acting Free State Director of Public Prosecutions, said during arguments: “The facts in the State’s possession disclose that there is a prima facie case for prosecution and that there are reasonable prospects of such prosecution against Magashule emanating from these payments, and his request therefore and/or knowledge thereof.”

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Ace Magashule’s R255m case ‘bears hallmarks of corruption’, says Free State prosecuting authority”

In February 2022, Magashule’s legal team argued in court that the corruption charges were “obviously” politically motivated and should be dropped. The State accused them of dishonesty and misrepresentation.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “President Ramaphosa responsible for corruption charges against Magashule, Ace’s lawyer claims”

In March 2022, the Bloemfontein High Court issued a decision in which Judge Soma Naidoo dismissed Magashule and his three co-accused’s application to have the charges dropped on the grounds that the four men had not made any compelling arguments for why the issues at hand could not be addressed by the trial court when the case was heard.

Magashule’s fall from grace


In a leaked letter dated 3 May 2021, the late ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte informed Magashule that he would be temporarily suspended from his position pending his criminal case. At the end of March 2021, the ANC’s national executive committee gave Magashule 30 days to resign or face suspension.

It appeared Magashule had been outplayed by his rivals in President Ramaphosa’s camp, but the secretary-general, who was accustomed to getting his way in the Free State, fought back.

Magashule’s letter to Ramaphosa, dated 3 May – the day he was suspended – was also leaked. Magashule informed Ramaphosa that he (Ramaphosa) was being suspended from the ANC due to allegations surrounding funds he had raised while campaigning for the presidency of the ANC.

Magashule’s letter read: “You are hereby temporarily suspended, with effect from 3 May 2021, from all activities of the ANC, pending all the internal processes of the ANC, as well as the finalisation of the pending matters to which I have referred above.”

Read more in Daily Maverick: “An outwitted Magashule won’t go without a bang, ‘suspends’ Ramaphosa in ANC staring match”

In May 2023, Magashule was given seven days to explain why he should not be expelled from the party.

A month later, in June 2023, the ANC severed ties with Magashule, punishing him with permanent expulsion. This came after he missed the deadline to contest the party’s disciplinary action against him.

“After a guilty verdict by the National Disciplinary Committee, Comrade Ace Magashule was allowed to show cause why he should not be expelled from the ANC. Upon the lapse of seven days, the NDC had not received any representation to that effect. Consequently, the NDC confirmed the expulsion of Comrade Ace Magashule as a final sanction,” an ANC statement read.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Ace Magashule needs to find new home after ANC cracks whip and permanently expels him”

His problems didn’t stop there. In June 2023, Ramaphosa signed a proclamation authorising the Special Investigating Unit to probe allegations involving serious maladministration and fruitless and wasteful expenditure in the affairs of the Free State Premier’s Office while Magashule was in charge.

The investigation would also look into the Office of the Premier’s annual report for the 2017/18 financial year, which “concerns the approval, allocation, or payment of bursaries, including travel, accommodation, and stipends to persons who were not entitled or were given in a manner that contradicted the applicable manuals, policies, procedures, prescripts, instructions, or practices of the Office of the Premier.”

Read more in Daily Maverick: “While ANC expulsion looms for Ace Magashule, SIU opens investigation into his Free State bursary scheme”

National election


When Magashule was axed from the ANC, he formed the African Congress of Transformation (ACT). There were rumblings that ACT would shake up the political landscape of the Free State and give the ANC a run for its money.

However, the ACT failed to secure a single seat in Parliament. It gained only one seat on the Free State provincial ballot. 

Magashule is eligible to take a seat in the Free State provincial legislature, but if convicted on the asbestos charges, he will have to resign. DM

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