The Free State High Court in Bloemfontein has dismissed with costs former premier Ace Magashule’s personal assistant (PA) Moroadi Cholota’s application to have the fraud and corruption charges against her dropped.
Initially, the matter was heard in August 2024 when she filed an urgent application to have her extradition declared unlawful and for the charges against her to be dropped. The application to enrol the matter as one of urgency was dismissed with costs. The matter was heard again in November 2024 and the judgement was handed down on Thursday, 23 January.
The charges she faces are in relation to the infamous R255 million asbestos scandal in Free State. Cholota who was extradited from the United States in August 2024 was granted R2500 bail by the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court the same month.
ACE MAGASHULE’S FORMER PA’S COURT BID DISMISSED WITH COSTS
The judgement was delivered in less than 30 seconds and the reasons for the dismissal were not provided.
The asbestos matter is expected to sit for trial in April.
WHO ELSE IS CHARGED?
As previously reported by The South African, initally, Cholota was a witness against Magashule and the other accused before she reportedly failed to honour her commitment to cooperating with law enforcement.
She was then added to the list of suspects in the asbestos audit case, where money was stolen and laundered using the cover of a Free State government tender to identify houses with poisonous asbestos in the roofs.
Cholota is accused of fraud and corruption, among other charges, alongside her former boss Magashule, infamous businessman Edwin Sodi and others, such as:
- Olly Mlamleli, former MEC and Mangaung mayor
- Thabane Zulu, former director-general of national Department of Human Settlements
- Nthimotse Mokhesi
- Mahlomola Matlakala
- Sello Radebe
- Adel Kgotso Manyeki
- Nozipho Molikoe
- Albertus Venter
- Margaret-Ann Diedericks, former head of Gauteng’s human settlements department
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