Magashule’s ex-PA to face court in R255m asbestos corruption case
The former personal assistant of ex-Free State Premier Ace Magashule is slated to appear in court regarding the R255 million asbestos case.
Ace Magashule’s former personal assistant is scheduled to appear before the Bloemfontein Magistrates Court on Monday, August 12, in connection with her alleged role in the R255 million asbestos scandal.
The woman landed at OR Tambo International Airport from Newark Liberty International Airport in the US on Thursday evening.
ACE MAGASHULE’S FORMER PA TO APPEAR IN COURT
Initially, the suspect was a witness against Magashule and the other accused before she reportedly failed to honour her commitment to cooperating with law enforcement.
She was then added to the list of suspects in the asbestos audit case, where money was stolen and laundered using the cover of a Free State government tender to identify houses with poisonous asbestos in the roofs.
The woman has been sitting in a US jail since April 2024, trying to avoid extradition to South Africa by claiming ill-treatment by interrogators. Recently, the Constitutional Court dismissed her request to nullify the extradition.
The asbestos trial will be held in the Free State High Court in Bloemfontein, sitting in Bloemfontein from 15 April 2025 to 23 June 2025.
WHO ARE THE OTHER CO-ACCUSED?
Magashule’s former PA is accused of fraud and corruption, among other charges, alongside her former boss Magashule, infamous businessman Edwin Sodi and others, such as:
- Thabane Zulu, former director-general of national Department of Human Settlements
- Nthimotse Mokhesi
- Mahlomola Matlakala
- Sello Radebe
- Adel Kgotso Manyeki
- Nozipho Molikoe
- Albertus Venter
- Margaret-Ann Diedericks, former head of Gauteng’s human settlements department
- Olly Mlamleli, former MEC and Mangaung mayor