National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, suffered a legal blow after the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, dismissed her urgent application to interdict her impending arrest amid a corruption probe. Picture: Independent Newspapers Archive
While the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is remaining mum over the fate of Speaker of Parliament Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, it is expected that she will hand herself over to the police to be processed, before appearing before court on corruption and money laundering charges.
The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, on Tuesday struck her urgent application to halt her arrest from the roll. This was mainly as the court found that her application was not urgent.
Although the NPA urged her two weeks ago to hand herself over to the police so that her case could be processed, this has not yet been done.
Judge Sulet Potterill’s judgment, however, left the way open for her to be arrested and brought before court.
Judge Potterill found that it was merely speculation on her part that her arrest would be unlawful.
Judge Potterill said the NPA was in fact lenient towards her. She was told to present herself at a police station so that she could be processed and taken to court.
The judge also pointed out that the NPA gave the assurance that it would not oppose bail. Thus, the judge said, there could be no urgency in a case where a person’s liberty was not at stake.
It was argued on behalf of Mapisa-Nqakula that the matter was urgent as her “unlawful arrest is imminent and set to take her and her legal representative by surprise”.
It was further argued that an arrest would harm her dignity as an ordinary citizen “merely by virtue of her office as Speaker”.
Meanwhile, she was not able to prove urgency in the matter, as the judge pointed out that Mapisa-Nqakula knew since March 8 that an arrest was imminent.
But for weeks since that date no arrest has been carried out and the NPA has engaged with her and her team for her to hand herself over at a police station.
Judge Potterill said if the court did issue an interdict against the arrest, it would open the floodgates to other suspects to turn to court in a bid to avoid their arrests and to argue that the State’s case against them was weak. “The whole criminal justice system will then fold and be controlled by suspects,” she said.
Regarding the request by Mapisa-Nqakula’s legal team for her to take a “judicial peek” into the case docket against the Speaker if she was unsure about the case against her, the judge remarked that she was “not unsure”, thus she did not look at the docket.
NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga, shortly after the judgment, refused to comment on the way forward. However, he said the judgment paved the way for an arrest.
“Obviously the wheels of justice will now be in motion ...,” Mhaga said.
While no details have been forthcoming about when and whether she will be arrested or hand herself over to the police, Mhaga and members of her legal team were seen talking to each other in court seconds after the judgment was delivered.
It could be that Mapisa-Nqakula will hand herself over to the Lyttelton police station in Pretoria today, as this was the plan all along from her legal team’s side.
Her attorney, Stephen May, said in court papers that he had told the NPA that the first date he would be available was April 3 (today) and that he could then accompany her to the police station.
Her advocate, Reg Willis SC, also during arguments, told Judge Potterill that Mapisa-Nqakula was willing to hand herself over to the Lyttelton police station on Wednesday, to be processed and taken to court.
Attorney John Njau of Sekgala and Njau meanwhile said the Speaker jumped the proverbial gun when she decided to bring the application to stop the NPA from exercising its statutory duty and constitutional mandate.
“She had a high bar to reach in her attempt to convince the court that her imminent arrest was going to infringe upon her constitutional right.
Fortunately, the judiciary remains one of the strongest democratic institutions in South Africa and this was again evident in the court’s dismissal of her application.”
Njau said ironically, as the head of Parliament, a legislative arm of the state responsible for making the law, the Speaker was expected to adhere to and respect the very law that Parliament had passed.
Attorney Konrad Röntgen said Mapisa-Nqakula’s application to stay any and or all proceedings against her for the moment was unheard of.
Reacting to the outcome, the ANC said: “The ANC is committed to respecting the laws of the country and allowing the justice process to take its course. As such, the ANC will enforce its integrity and step-aside policies to preserve the integrity of the movement.”
Cape Times