Suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule says he wants his corruption case dropped so that he can resume his duties at the party's head office, Luthuli House.
Magashule appeared at the Bloemfontein high court on Monday where he contested the corruption charges levelled against him. He is due to return to the same court on Tuesday and will argue for the charges to be dropped.
Magashule has been suspended from the ANC for almost a year after he was charged for corruption in the controversial Free State asbestos eradication tender. The tender was awarded to his co-accused Edwin Sodi, who has also made an application for the case to dropped.
Chief in their arguments is that the state has lost its key witness Moroedi Cholota and have also failed to disclose which other witnesses they were relying on.
Speaking on behalf of Magashule outside court, NEC member Dakota Legoete said the charges were flimsy.
“It's unfortunate, we're regressing, we're being diverted from dealing with real issues that affect our people. Those are things we should be focused on than to attend class court cases,” Legoete said alongside Magashule. “We are not saying that nobody must be charged for corruption, but that proper charges be brought here unlike these flimsy charges because they undermine the authority ... even the state institutions because people are being made clowns to bring trumped-up charges which cannot stand in law.”
However, the NPA believes that despite losing its key witness they are still confident of their case against the former Free State premier.
“Despite their arguments there about how the charges have been framed against them we are still confident that we'll put up a strong argument for the application that they've put together to be dismissed. However, we still maintain the witnesses we have lined up will present credible and admissible evidence when the trial resumes,” said NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga.
Mhaga said people should not be confused that the state relied only on the evidence of Cholota. He says they have lined up a number of other witnesses who will implicate Magashule in his corruption case.
Magashule, along with Sodi and others, are accused of corruption in the R255m tender for the eradication of asbestos roofing in Mangaung.
Magashule was premier of the Free State at the time and is being accused of receiving kickbacks from Sodi and his partner to the tune of more than R1m.
Magashule has rejected the accusations, claiming they were being used for political reasons aimed at seeing him out of action at Luthuli house.
He has been suspended since May from what is essentially one of the most powerful positions in the party.
He will on Tuesday petition the court to drop the charges against him.
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