Speaker Mapisa-Nqakula on ‘special leave’ after corruption claims speculation

21 Mar 2024

Late on Human Rights Day, National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula stepped aside from public office under a cloud of corruption allegations and amid rumours of her possible arrest.

On Thursday, National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula became the first speaker of democratic South Africa to take special leave from the responsibility of heading the legislative sphere of state.

Two days earlier, a raid by the Investigating Directorate (ID) on her Johannesburg home triggered speculation about her possible arrest in connection with bribes of millions of rands solicited while she was defence minister.

“Given the seriousness of the allegations and the attendant extensive media speculation, I have decided to take special leave from my position as speaker of the National Assembly, effective immediately,” Mapisa-Nqakula said.

“This decision by myself is meant to protect the integrity of Parliament and ensure its sacred duty and its name continue unblemished.”

Her announcement came about four hours after a parliamentary statement that said Mapisa-Nqakula “is leading a multi-party delegation ... to the 148th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland”.

‘Ready to cooperate’

Mapisa-Nqakula said her lawyers had been in touch with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to inform it “of my readiness to comply and cooperate should the need arise”. Despite Tuesday’s ID raid, she said that to date “no formal notification of an arrest warrant or communication of an imminent arrest” had been communicated either to her or her legal team.

The secretary to Parliament, Xolile George, had been informed, as had President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC, Mapisa-Nqakula said. She would not have returned to Parliament after the 29 May elections as her name was not on the ANC candidates lists.

Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told Daily Maverick, “[This] is a matter of due process and that process must be allowed to run its course.”

The ANC noted Mapisa-Nqakula’s special leave and said, “The ANC will enforce its integrity and step aside policies based on the facts as they arise.”

Mapisa-Nqakula is taking special leave three parliamentary sitting days before the National Assembly rises on 29 March for the elections, with an eight-week constituency period.

It was not the resignation that DA Chief Whip Siviwe Gwarube and others in opposition parties had called for in the wake of the raid. However, it effectively means Mapisa-Nqakula has snubbed the ANC’s closing of ranks.

ANC Chief Whip Pemmy Majodina on Tuesday said the investigation against Mapisa-Nqakula had yet to fully unfold and that the Speaker had rights like any other South African.

In Tuesday’s presidential Q&A session, House chairperson Grace Boroto dismissed DA leader John Steenhuisen’s question of whether Ramaphosa would support the call for the speaker to resign as “gossip” and a “cheap shot”. It was ruled a new question that Ramaphosa did not have to answer, and he didn’t, saying, “Your ruling is my command.”

‘Bribes were solicited’ — whistle-blower

The corruption claims against Mapisa-Nqakula date back to her time as defence minister and relate to bribes a defence contractor turned whistle-blower claimed were solicited at a series of meetings. The total amounts vary between R5-million, when this was first reported in 2019 by City Press, to R2.3-million when the Sunday Times earlier in March reported on the ID investigation.

In 2021, the corruption claims came before Parliament’s joint standing committee on defence when United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa asked for an investigation. However, legislators dropped the probe in September that year over non-cooperation from the whistle-blower.

That person is now known to be Nombasa Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu, who has submitted an affidavit to the NPA, according to the Sunday Times. And it was Holomisa who laid criminal charges with the police, as Mapisa-Nqakula in April 2021 said he should do.

‘Nothing to hide’

Throughout, Mapisa-Nqakula has maintained her innocence and denied wrongdoing. In the wake of Tuesday’s raid on her home, a statement issued by Parliament said, “The Speaker steadfastly upholds her strong conviction of innocence and reaffirms that she has nothing to hide.”

Mapisa-Nqakula’s special leave comes two years and seven months after Ramaphosa appointed his former defence minister as speaker in his August 2021 Cabinet reshuffle.

Ramaphosa would have been aware of the claims against Mapisa-Nqakula, as he would have been of the controversy over reports that in 2014 she had, according to the Sunday Times, “smuggled a … woman with a false passport into South Africa on an air force jet”.

In September 2020, Ramaphosa fined her three months’ salary, to be donated to the Solidarity Fund, for allowing a group of ANC leaders aboard an official air force flight to Zimbabwe. The ANC had to repay the R232,000 cost of the transportation.

During her stint as defence minister from 2012 to 2021, the military’s financial floundering and equipment disarray solicited widespread criticism.

However, Mapisa-Nqakula’s move from defence minister to National Assembly speaker was sparked by her contradiction of the President’s description of the July 2021 riots as a “counter-revolution” rather than an insurrection. She subsequently apologised. In some ANC circles the move was seen as the removal from the Cabinet of an insufficiently loyal person.

On Thursday, Mapisa-Nqakula framed her decision to take special leave as one arising from her “utmost respect for our legislative system and the laws of our nation, some of which I have been privileged to pass”, and a reaffirmation of “my commitment to upholding the integrity of my office” and commitment to fully cooperate with law enforcement agencies.

“I will also not be attending the long-planned 148th session of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly taking place in Geneva, Switzerland,” she said. DM

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‘Ready to cooperate’

‘Bribes were solicited’ — whistle-blower

‘Nothing to hide’