Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, Speaker of the South Africa parliament has been arraigned on bribery allegations in the tune of $135,000 as part of crisis engulfing the governing African National Congress party.
The speaker gave in to the law enforcement agency Pretoria where she was taken to Magistrates Court before being granted a bail of 50,000 rand ($2,670).
However, the speaker said she’s not guilty of the charges, saying the arrest was orchestrated in a bid to deter her reputation for the national elections coming up this year.
Mapisa-Nqakula was alleged to have received 11 cash payments from contractors when she was minister of defense between 2016 – 2019, prompting that raiding of her johannesburg home by law enforcement officials.
She left as speaker of parliament and explained to the court on Thursday that she was not a flight risk and would have a lot to lose by evading her trial, including her state pension.
Her case has been postponed to June 4, with prosecutors saying they plan to add another defendant.
