Magashule’s former PA Cholota granted R2 500 bail

Moroadi Cholota, the former personal assistant to Ace Magashule, has been granted R2 500 bail and has been ordered to report to the police every Monday and Friday.

Cholota appeared in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, where her written submissions for her bail application were read, and she criticised and denied the state’s arguments against her bail application.

She faces fraud, corruption, and money laundering charges linked to the R255 million Free State asbestos tender.

Delivering the ruling, Magistrate Estelle de Lange said there needs to be hard evidence to show that someone is a flight risk and that he or she would seek to evade their trial.

De Lange pointed out that Cholota had already spent four months behind bars and that it is clear that this trial will be a lengthy one.

The magistrate said Cholota will be released immediately if she pays her bail, but she will return to the court on Friday morning to have her case transferred to the High Court.

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The state has accused her of facilitating corrupt financial transactions on behalf of Magashule.

While arguing for bail, Cholota said the allegations that she is a flight risk due to her alleged connections in Kenya were false.

“The state has been silent on allegations that I have connections in Kenya, which I don’t and never have,” she said.

Extradition process ‘blown out of proportion’

She further criticised the state for how it handled the extradition process. She implied it was exaggerated to make her seem like a fugitive.

“I deny the allegation by the state that I had no intention of returning to South Africa to face trial,” she said.

“The state has failed to run the criminal trial since 2020, when the charges were originally brought against my co-accused.”

When the state initially charged her in 2021, no date had been set for the criminal case. When the state initiated the extradition process in 2022, it had not yet set down the matter for hearing, she said.

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“The state attempts to use the extradition proceedings to prove to this court that I am a flight risk. I am advised that this is a legally unsound approach.

“The extradition proceedings in the US were initiated by the state without prior notice to me about any hearing date for trial that I had to present myself on.

“I was busy with my studies, attending lectures and not evading trial as the state claims. It therefore cannot be said that I have evaded a trial that was never underway.”

Cholota: State ‘distorting’ information

Cholota further accused the state of distorting information related to the case that could help the court decide on the bail application.

“Prosecutors are under a general duty to place before a court any information relevant to the refusal or granting of bail,” she said.

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“The state attempts to make a case that I am a flight risk and I will evade trial and abscond if I am not remanded in custody. I have already stated previously that this would be a gross violation of my rights.

“The state also says my remand in custody for nearly four months is due to my own doing. This is not true or accurate.

“The state’s opposition is brought in utmost bad faith. It is as weak as its case against me in the main criminal matter.”

Cholota further implied that the state was pushing its luck with the case against her. This was because other investigations into the asbestos case had never implicated her.

“The Asbestos case has been investigated at length by other state agencies over and above the state capture commission, such as the public protector, SIU and AG. In none of these reports was I ever mentioned, let alone implicated.

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“It speaks volumes at the lengths at which the state would go to falsely accuse a person, that it would even contract private forensic investigators.”