Maroc - dailynews.co.za - News - 13/Aug 14:21

‘A flight risk with very little respect for the law’: state explains why Ace Magashule’s PA should remain in jail

The state alleges that Ace Magashule’s former personal assistant Moroadi Cholota is a flight risk who is likely to evade her trial. The 37-year-old is applying for bail in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court, following her extradition from the United States on Thursday. She is asking that she be released on bail of R2,500 and be allowed to attend her trial, like her co-accused, whom she claims has not even spent one day in jail. Cholota who has been in police custody in the United States since April this year, is facing charges of fraud, corruption and money laundering pertaining to the R255 million Free State Asbestos project. There are 17 accused in the matter including Cholota. However, she believes that the State has a weak case against her. She faces charges of fraud amounting to over R86 million. On Tuesday, Captain Benjamin Calitz from the Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigation (known as the Hawks) in a sworn affidavit has told the court that the accused is a flight risk likely to evade trial. Calitz claimed that Cholota misled the court in her affidavit. He said that Cholota was at Bay Atlantic University on a study visa, which expired in November 2023.Calitz said in August 2022 the Director-General in the Office of the Premier of the Free State Provincial Government, gave notice to Cholota of the possible termination of her bursary on the grounds of the arrest warrant issued for her in South Africa in relation to the asbestos matter. He said she was subsequently arrested following the cancellation of her visa in February 2023 but no immigration charges were made against her. The policeman said that her four month stint behind bars was of her own doing because she tried to delay the extradition process. He further rebutted claims that Cholota shared a close relationship with her family, and said she had not been back to visit them since 2020, including her son. “When I interviewed Ms Cholota in Baltimore on 22 September 2021, she indicated that her boyfriend, whose name I cannot recall, would come to check in on her during the course of the interview and a gentleman did indeed visit her, whereafter the interview was paused, and Ms Cholota spoke to him in private,” he said.Calitz also claimed that while he did not know the man’s whereabouts, he believed the man lived in the United States. While Cholota said she intended to attend the trial to clear her name, Calitz said: “Ms Cholota has fought her extradition at every step and by every means. She has no desire to stand trial and prove her innocence.”He added that she ceased co-operating with the investigative team as a state witness in September 2021.Calitz said that Cholota need not possess travel documents to evade trial. “She has previously proved to have evaded authorities in the United States. There is nothing to say she will not disappear within the borders of South Africa too.”The matter was adjourned to Thursday for the defence to reply. IOL News