United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa is the first witness to take the stand in the alleged corruption and money laundering trial against former National Assembly Speaker and former Minister of Defence, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.
In 2021, Holomisa wrote a letter to the then chairperson of Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Defence, accusing Mapisa-Nqakula of receiving gifts and cash to the tune of R5 million from a South African National Defence Force contractor between 2017 and 2019.
Holomisa says the complainant, Nombasa Ntsondwa Ndhlovu, told him that she had paid money to Mapisa-Nqakula and had proof.
Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu submitted an affidavit to law enforcement agencies, confessing to bribing Mapisa-Nqakula with R2.5 million in 11 different payments.
Holomisa details the interaction with the help of an interpreter.
“The first inference was when the complainant said to me, and this is what attracted my attention to this. She said, “I paid monies to minister. I paid monies to Gulube as well as the minister.”
