‘I helped the minister to smuggle Michelle’
Axed SA embassy official spills the beans on defence minister Mapisa-Nqakula
AN embassy official who helped Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula smuggle a young woman out of the Democratic Republic of Congo in her state jet appears to have been made a scapegoat to protect the politician and her sister.
Official documents show the minister’s involvement in the smuggling scandal in 2014 was well documented by several high-ranking officials, yet no action has been taken against her.
President Jacob Zuma said this week that he was still “engaging” Mapisa-Nqakula about the incident.
The Sunday Times broke the story of Mapisa-Nqakula’s involvement in the case in May last year. She then confessed that she flew from Waterkloof Air Force Base to the DRC to fetch Michelle Wege on January 28 2014. She claimed she had helped the woman because Wege was a family friend and was being abused by her father.
However, Wege’s father, Burundian businessman Laurent Wege, denied this.
He said his daughter had told him she was engaged to the minister’s son Chumani, who died a year later in a stabbing incident. Wege was living at the minister’s home in Bruma, Johannesburg, at the time.
Abdoulkarim Ciza, who worked for the South African embassy in Burundi for 11 years, told the Sunday Times that he was instructed by the minister’s sister Nosithembele Mapisa to help 20-year-old Burundi national Wege get into South Africa on a fraudulent document.
Nosithembele was the deputy ambassador to Burundi at the time. She told Ciza the instruction had come from the minister.
When the operation went wrong and Ciza and Wege were arrested in the DRC, Wege was whisked to South Africa in Mapisa-Nqakula’s jet. Ciza was left in jail and later fired for his role in the operation.
Government sources told the Sunday Times this week that a political compromise had been reached behind the scenes to make Ciza the scapegoat and sack him to protect the Mapisa sisters.
“Nosithembele was suspended for 17 months for her role in the matter and subsequently reinstated without going through any disciplinary hearing,” a source said. SACKED AND SNUBBED: Abdoulkarim Ciza who helped to smuggle Michelle Wege out of the DRC RIGHT: Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula who was party to the smuggling
Nosithembele was suspended in April 2014 and reinstated in August 2015. Her term in Burundi ended in December and she is now a director for Gulf states in the Middle East and Asia branch.
Ciza, who is Burundian, said he was released from the DRC jail after paying a fine to prison officials. When he returned to work, South Africa’s ambassador to Burundi, Oupa Monareng, initiated disciplinary action against him.
Ciza was charged with “damaging the name of the Republic of South Africa by being instrumental in the smuggling out [of] a Burundi national by the name of Michelle Wege to the DRC, using fraudulent documents at the Kinshasa airport, heading for South Africa under the false name of Amina Yambayamba”.
Ciza said he asked that Mapisa-Nqakula, her sister and the deputy South African ambassador to the DRC attend his disciplinary hearing to explain their roles. His request was ignored.
“Instead, I was made the sacrificial lamb and fired.” He was dismissed in August 2015.
Ciza wrote to Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant and International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane last month asking them to investigate his “unfair dismissal”.
He wrote: “Unfortunately, I note with desolation that although I bear no direct responsibility in the chain of events as I simply responded to my hierarchy and acted accordingly. I am the one today who has to pay the price.”
A spokesman for the Labour Department, Mokgadi Pela, said on Friday that he was not aware of Ciza’s letter.
“We will deal with the matter as soon as the letter comes to our attention,” he said.
International relations spokesman Clayson Monyela said he could not comment because it was an internal issue.
“It is safe to say that Abdoulkarim is a former employee of the department who is now fighting to get his old job back after his service was terminated,” Monyela said.
Mapisa-Nqakula refused to answer 12 questions sent to her office on Thursday.
Her spokeswoman, Joy Peter, said: “The minister has told me that she does not want to have anything to do with you. She did not even want to see the questions.”
She would also not confirm if Wege was still living with the minister.
Zuma’s spokesman, Bongani Ngqulunga, said the president had initiated a discussion on this issue with the minster.
“The engagement between the president and minister is still ongoing,” he said.
The minister has told me that she does not want to have anything to do with you