Cholota legal team refutes claims she was aggressive in Asbestos probe early stages
Cholota was initially considered a State witness expected to give damning testimony against her former boss in the R255 million corruption case, but she was later joined to a long list of accused when investigators could not secure evidence from her against Magashule.
Fraud and corruption-accused Moroadi Cholota appeared in the Bloemfontein Magistrates Court on 12 August 2024. Picture: Xanderleigh Dookey Makhaza/EWN
JOHANNESBURG - The legal team for one of the accused in the asbestos trial has tried to poke holes in claims that former Free State Premier Ace Magashule’s ex-PA Moroadi Cholota was aggressive and evasive in the early stages of investigations.
Cholota was initially considered a State witness expected to give damning testimony against her former boss in the R255 million corruption case, but she was later joined to a long list of accused when investigators could not secure evidence from her against Magashule.
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Magashule is accused of having a hand in the dodgy and incomplete tender, which would have seen the removal of hazardous asbestos roofs from low-cost housing in the Free State.
Lead investigator Benjamin Calitz said Cholota was aggressive and uncooperative while she was still considered a State witness.
He recently told the court that his trip to the United States (US) in 2021 to interview Cholota in the early stages of the probe was unfruitful.
Cholota was later arrested, slapped with the same charges as Magashule and extradited from the US to South Africa to stand trial.
Using a copy of the transcript of the 2021 interview that was admitted into evidence this week, Cholota’s lawyer, Advocate Loyiso Makapela, pushed Calitz to point to words that suggested she was a difficult witness.
Calitz told Makapela that it wasn’t so much what Cholota said but rather her demeanour during the interview, which he, of course, couldn’t point out in the text.
Cholota’s lawyer dismissed his suggestion as trying to create a false narrative of her after she refused to incriminate Magashule.
Makapela wrapped up cross-examination on day three of the trial within a trial, with Magashule’s lawyer expected to get his turn now.