Moroadi Cholota in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court. Picture: NPA
Fraud-accused Moroadi Cholota has hit back at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), saying R86 million fraud does not reflect in her current charge sheet and that her attorney is intending to fight this fact.
Cholota, 37, is asking the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court to release her on bail following her extradition from the US, a week ago.
The NPA has asked the court to keep Cholota behind bars, as she is a flight risk with very little respect for the law.
However, Cholota, in a 66-page replying affidavit, denied that she was a flight risk and was evading trial.
Cholota, 37, is being charged with fraud, corruption and money laundering pertaining to the R255 million Free State asbestos project.
“The State has not amended my charge sheet, nor has the State informed my legal representatives that it will be dropping some of its trumped-up charges against me at the instance of the United States.
“Instead, the State papers reflects an amount of R86.5 million that is not found anywhere in the current charge sheet.”
She said this was an “appalling display of the State” and her attorney would challenge this.
Cholota also denied claims made by the State that she would evade the trial.
“The State has failed to run the criminal case since 2020 when the charges were originally brought against my co-accused.
“It has also failed to run the criminal case since I was initially charged in 2021. It therefore cannot be said I have evaded a trial that was never under way.”
Cholota said the State was using the extradition process to say she would evade her trial, which she claims was not the case.
“I was busy with my studies at Bay Atlantic University in Baltimore, Maryland, attending lectures and not evading trial or fleeing from justice, as the State has made it seem.”
However, Captain Benjamin Calitz from the Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigation (known as the Hawks), in a sworn affidavit for the State, told the court on Tuesday that the accused is a flight risk likely to evade trial.
“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.
Cholota claimed that the NPA’s intention has always been to “degrade, humiliate and effect cruel punishment on me for what the State deems as a failure to co-operate with it”.
She added that there was never evidence against her.
“As I stated previously, the Asbestos Project has been investigated at length by other State agencies over and above the State Capture Commission, such as the Public Protector, the Special Investigating Unit and the Auditor General.
“In none of these reports was I ever mentioned, let alone implicated.”
She said that she had been pursuing her degree in Political Science.
“I reconfirm to this Honourable Court the undertaking made in my founding papers, that should I be released on bail, not only will I attend my trial, but I will also not abscond the country nor will I make application for a new passport or travel documents.”
The hearing is ongoing.
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