WATCH | Mapisa-Nqakula seeks relaxation of bail conditions to travel to Botswana

Mapisa-Nqakula

Cape Town — Former National Assembly speaker, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, is seeking a relaxation of her bail conditions after her latest court appearance.

Mapisa-Nqakula is currently out on R50 000 bail as she faces 12 charges of corruption and one count of money laundering. During the court proceedings, she requested that her bail conditions be relaxed to allow herself to travel abroad, The Citizen reported.

Advocate Reginald Willis, representing Mapisa-Nqakula, told Judge Mokhine Mosopa that his client wished to travel out of the country to Africa.

“Her passport that’s handed in is a diplomatic passport so she will be making an application,” said Willis. Manyathi said Mapisa-Nqakula no longer held diplomatic status so needed to apply for a normal passport through Home Affairs.

“What we need as the state is an affidavit because it has legal consequences,” Manyathi explained.

Mapisa-Nqakula allegedly wanted to travel to Botswana which requires a check on all the details provided.

“Once we have done our due diligence through Interpol, if we are happy with the details provided, we then approach a judge in chambers by arrangement and an order relaxing the bail conditions is granted unopposed,” said Manyathi.

According to TimesLIVE, Prosecutor Manyathi said the state was not ready to proceed with the opposed hearing as Mapisa-Nqakula’s team submitted many documents.

“The applicant filed heads of argument on Monday of 133 pages and references made of 128 decided cases and eight legal publications. So the heads themselves, in the state’s view, are voluminous … The state said on Tuesday it would have been unlikely to have read it all and argue the matter today [Thursday],” Manyathi said.

It was agreed by all parties for the matter to be postponed to January 20 next year.

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Compiled by Matthew Petersen

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