Ex-speaker about to find out who talked
● When she hands over her passport at Lyttelton police station tomorrow as part of her bail conditions, former parliamentary speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula will, for the first time, learn who among her inner circle have given statements to the Investigating Directorate (ID) and will potentially be witnesses in her trial.
The Sunday Times understands the more than 10 witnesses she may not contact as part of her bail conditions include confidantes and individuals who worked in her office in the department of defence.
They have provided statements to the ID as part of the investigation into claims by former defence contractor Nombasa Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu that Mapisa-Nqakula solicited, and received, more than R2m from her while she was minister of defence.
The 67-year-old handed herself over to police on Thursday and later appeared at the Pretoria magistrate’s court where she was granted R50,000 bail on 12 charges of fraud and one of money laundering.
Some of the potential witnesses are known to the Sunday Times. They include people with direct knowledge of various aspects of alleged dealings between Mapisa-Nqakula and Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu.
NPA spokesperson Henry Mamothame said the prosecuting authority would not be in a position to confirm whether the individuals are known to the former speaker. “It was said in court that she will be given a list of people we intend to call as witnesses, and we were given until Monday to do so,” he said.
The Sunday Times understands that a second accused in the matter, whom the NPA said would be present when the matter is back in the court on June 4, is Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu herself.
This is because, as a witness under Section 204 of the Criminal Procedures Act, she remains an accused but will plead guilty and co-operate with the prosecution in return for immunity from prosecution which can be confirmed only by the presiding judge.
The June appearance will be the first in-person meeting between the two since their fallout apparently precipitated by Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu’s alleged refusal to make any more payments to the former speaker — that culminated in the criminal probe and Mapisa-Nqakula’s arrest this week.
It will also represent a spectacular fall from grace for the politician on the eve of her retirement from the National Assembly of which she has been a member since the dawn of democracy in 1994.
She was on the brink of calling it a day on a political and activist career that started in the 1970s in the Eastern Cape and saw her husband Charles Nqakula flee arrest in the 1980s to go into exile where she underwent military training in Angola — and the then Soviet Union.
When she returned in 1990, MapisaNqakula served on various structures in the ANC Women’s League, including as secretary-general between 1993 and 1997. She was elected president of the league in 2003, and held the position for five years when she was succeeded by Angie Motshekga.
Mapisa-Nqakula became an MP in 1994, was appointed deputy minister of home affairs in 2002, and got her first cabinet appointment two years later in the same department. She was minister of correctional services between 2009 and 2012 before she was moved by President Jacob Zuma to defence, where she served until 2021 when she became the seventh speaker of parliament.
Sitting next to each other in court will be two individuals who believe the other is responsible for their legal woes. Until last month, Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu was an accused charged with fraud and corruption related to her contracts at the defence department.
Over time, their relationship grew after bonding over their calling into traditional healing. Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu even claims Mapisa-Nqakula asked her to throw bones, in April 2019, to determine if she would keep her position in an imminent cabinet reshuffle.
“A couple of days later I threw my bones in my ancestral hut as per the minister’s request and I determined that she would retain her position. On May 3 2019, I sent a WhatsApp message to her informing her of the outcome. She thanked me,” NtsondwaNdhlovu said.
“From then on, I would get ancestral information about the minister and I would sometimes pass it on to her WhatsApp or just ignore it.”
She detailed how Mapisa-Nqakula in July 2019 tried to help her with a media enquiry from the Sunday Times about an article headlined “Love me Tender” published on July 7 2019 about her defence department contracts.
“She mentioned to me that certain generals and their spouses were jealous of me and my husband ... The minister proposed that we should file an application for an interdict, but I would need a good attorney to do so,” she said. “During the discussion about the possible interdict, she wanted an assurance from me that I would definitely not make mention of my interaction with her, including the fact that she had been receiving monies from me.”
Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu alleged that on the day the article was published, Mapisa-Nqakula sent her a WhatsApp telling her that a national television broadcaster would be giving her a right of reply interview the next day. The interview took place.
While Mapisa-Nqakula’s spokesperson Mike Ramagoma reiterated this week that charges against her were the result of Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu’s scheme to extricate herself from her legal charges — her case was thrown out of the Pretoria commercial crimes court a month ago — NtsondwaNdhlovu intimates that her arrest in October 2020 was instigated by the former minister.
“We believe this is a case about somebody [Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu] who was already facing their own trial on a number of cases that were being investigated by the department of defence who when they realised they were about to go to jail they themselves brought this application to be granted section 204 status.
“It is on that basis we say the case is weak and based on flimsy evidence,” Ramagoma said on the steps of the Pretoria magistrate’s court on Thursday, moments after the former speaker made bail.
In her affidavit to the ID, NtsondwaNdhlovu alleges that the investigation into her was Mapisa-Nqakula’s way of controlling the investigation into her contracts.
“I observed with serious concern that while I am an ordinary civilian, my case was handled and investigated by the military police instead of the SAPS. I firmly believe this was done to enable the minister to monitor and ensure that her name never came out during the investigation. Hence the military police are in charge of the investigation,” she said.
In her affidavit, in which she details up to 12 times that she paid bribes to the former speaker, Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu also reveals the fallout between the two was over her asking Mapisa-Nqakula to give her a total figure of how much more she required.
“The minister sounded like she did not like my question. She said ndiyakucela — kaloku (I am merely asking you). She mentioned further that she was not only asking from me but also from other suppliers who have tenders from her department.
“I insisted on her giving me a ballpark figure [of how much] she wanted from me so that I could budget properly but she did not tell me,” Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu said.