The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria authorised a warrant of arrest for former defence minister and National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula on Friday after she failed to appear for her corruption and money-laundering trial.
The warrant will not be executed now. It is held over until 11 November and will be carried out only if she does not present herself on that date.
Mapisa-Nqakula was due back on the witness stand. Her evidence was cut short on Tuesday after she fell ill while testifying.
Conflicting accounts of the application
Accounts of Friday's application do not match. According to one version, defence counsel Siyabulela Mapoma handed up a medical certificate and asked for a postponement, and the state acknowledged the certificate and did not oppose the request. According to another, her lawyers told the court she was still unwell but had not presented a sick note, and the court issued the warrant for that reason.
Trial dates
The trial returns from 11 to 20 November, and again from 30 November to 4 December.
The charges
Mapisa-Nqakula faces 12 counts of corruption and one count of money laundering. The charges relate to her time as defence minister.
The state alleges she solicited R4.5 million in bribes between 2016 and 2019. It further alleges that R2.1 million was paid in cash by South African National Defence Force logistics contractor Nombasa Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu to secure and keep government tenders. Mapisa-Nqakula has denied the charges.
A second warrant in the case
This is not the first warrant in the case. On 10 September the same court authorised a warrant and held it over after she missed a date, again on a claim of illness. Judge Mashudu Munzhelele postponed that sitting to 16 September and extended her bail.
Mapisa-Nqakula has not been convicted. She has pleaded not guilty.
