WATCH | Moroadi Cholota will stand trial after court overturns special plea

Trial

Bloemfontein – The Free State High Court has ruled that Moroadi Cholota, former personal assistant to ex-ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, must stand trial in the R255 million asbestos corruption case.

Judge Philip Loubser delivered the ruling on 18 February 2026, overturning parts of Cholota’s earlier special plea.

“This court finds that Ms Cholota was indeed regarded as a suspect in the pending criminal trial from the moment it transpired that she was not prepared to implicate Mr Magashule,” Loubser  said.

“… This court has jurisdiction to try Ms Cholota on the charges she is facing,” he ruled.

Cholota had previously been cleared of corruption charges after her extradition from the United States was declared unlawful in June 2025.

The Constitutional Court later clarified that while the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) had exceeded its powers in requesting extradition, it did not bar her prosecution, sending the case back to the high court.

Loubser found that Cholota became a suspect after refusing to cooperate with investigators and highlighted evidence from her laptop, her testimony before the Zondo Commission, and a US court judgment confirming probable cause for her charges.

The judge concluded that the state had established sufficient grounds to proceed, and Cholota faces a single corruption charge.

She is among 18 accused in the case, which includes Magashule, former Mangaung mayor Olly Mlamleli, and other officials linked to the Free State Department of Human Settlements’ 2014 R255 million contract awarded to a joint venture between Diamond Hill Trading and Blackhead Consulting. All face charges of fraud, corruption, money laundering, and PFMA violations.

The trial is scheduled to resume on 2 March 2026.

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Compiled by Betha Madhomu

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