Speaker’s bid to halt arrest
PRETORIA – Embattled Speaker of Parliament, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has an urgent high court application to interdict law enforcement authorities from arresting her on corruption charges claiming there is ‘no case’ against her.
This comes after Mapisa-Nqakula reportedly handed herself over at the Pretoria Central Police Station yesterday.
Investigating Directorate officials have since confirmed that Mapisa-Nqakula has not been arrested on corruption charges according to News24.
Mapisa-Nqakula on Thursday said she took special leave from her position as Parliamentary Speaker amid the ongoing investigation into corruption allegations against her.
In the 94-page urgent high court application, Mapisa-Nqakula claims the state’s case against her is ‘non-existent’ and the conduct of law enforcement agencies investigating her ‘is indicative of an abuse of process’.
“It has become apparent that the State’s case against me is non-existent and contrived and while the State’s representatives refuse to make any type of disclosure to me, they are giving disclosure to the media, in a very one-sided and selective fashion, to paint me as guilty (a news article today falsely alleges an agreement to hand myself over).”
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Mapisa-Nqakula said the ultimate purpose of the application is to protect her constitutional rights to freedom and dignity, “including my rights to good name and reputation and self-esteem as well as to pursue a vocation of my choosing”.
“In my case, my position and status as Speaker of the National
Assembly of Parliament and member of the ruling African National Congress (the ANC), with the so-called ‘step aside rule’ carries the further humiliation of publicity and public speculation as well as the limitation on the continuation of my office and vocation,” Mapisa-Nqakula said.
Mapisa-Nqakula said she has devoted the majority of her adult life to the ‘pursuit of the rule of law and constitutional democracy, and the demise of the security state in South Africa’.
“The machinery of the criminal justice system and the State’s prerogative of prosecution was abused and used as a political tool then. I verily fear that this practice has once again reared its ugly head and, if not stopped, carries the real risk of further fraying the Constitutional fabric of our young democracy.”