{"id":30872,"date":"2025-06-03T15:40:57","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T13:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/?p=30872"},"modified":"2025-06-03T15:42:42","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T13:42:42","slug":"case-against-ace-magashules-former-pa-thrown-out-of-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/2025\/06\/03\/case-against-ace-magashules-former-pa-thrown-out-of-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Case against Ace Magashule’s former PA thrown out of court"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ace Magashule’s former PA, Moroadi Cholota, will not be tried in the controversial Free State asbestos case.<\/div>\n
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This after the High Court in Bloemfontein ruled that her extradition from the United States (US) was unlawful, effectively stripping the court of jurisdiction to prosecute her.<\/div>\n
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The 37-year-old\u00a0claims she was tortured and intimidated by detectives when\u00a0she was being brought back into the country.<\/div>\n
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Cholota\u00a0faced graft charges\u00a0alongside Magashule, businessman Edwin Sodi and 14 others after they allegedly failed to replace the harmful asbestos roofs from over 300 000 homes in Free State townships.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Judge Phillip Loubser said it is undeniable that the state presented false and incorrect information to US authorities.<\/div>\n
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“Two South African courts have already made this finding, and US authorities relied on this information in good faith, and actioned the extradition on an\u00a0unknowingly, unlawful basis.”<\/div>\n
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Cholota was extradited from the US in August last year after spending four months in American prisons.<\/div>\n
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The 37-year-old, who has always maintained her innocence, argued that the charges levelled against her were prompted by what she claimed police perceived as a ‘lack of cooperation’.<\/div>\n
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Police had sought information from her regarding the case following her testimony at the state capture inquiry, which was led by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.<\/div>\n
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Cholota’s legal team says it will follow her directive regarding the next steps.<\/div>\n
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    Former Free State premier, Magashule, says he is glad that his former PA did not give up and fought her extradition.<\/div>\n
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    He says officials used apartheid intimidation tactics when extraditing Cholota.<\/div>\n
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    Magashule, who is also an accused in the case, maintains his innocence saying he wants to be acquitted and not just have charges withdrawn.<\/div>\n
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    “I still want my day in court, so that I take the stand and expose what has not been exposed until today. My time will come.”<\/div>\n
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      \n\t\t\tCase against Ace Magashule’s former PA thrown out of court<\/span>\n\t\t\tLindiwe Mpanza<\/span>\n\t\t<\/p>\n\t<\/li>\n\t\t<\/ul>\n\t<\/div>\t\t\t\n\t\n<\/div>\n

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      The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) says it will consider its options regarding the Cholota judgment.<\/div>\n
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      Ace Magashule’s former PA, Moroadi Cholota, will not be tried in the controversial Free State asbestos case. This after the High Court in Bloemfontein ruled that her extradition from the United States (US) was unlawful, effectively stripping the court of jurisdiction to prosecute her. The 37-year-old\u00a0claims she was tortured and ...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":30876,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Cholota-extradition.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30872"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30882,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30872\/revisions\/30882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}