High Court hears Mapisa-Nqakula application to block her arrest
The High Court in Pretoria has on Monday heard an urgent application launched by the Speaker of the National Assembly.
Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula is asking the court to grant an urgent interdict stopping her imminent arrest.
Her Johannesburg home was raided last week.
The National Prosecuting Authority's Investigative Directorate is probing allegations that Mapisa-Nqakula accepted bribes from a military contractor during her time as defence minister.
Today's hearing is requesting an interim interdict against her arrest from the court, as an initial application for the interdict which will only be heard in April.
ALSO READ: ANC to discuss Mapisa-Nqakula’s legal woes amid corruption claims - Mbalula
Her lawyer Advocate Reginald Willis told the court they were forced to file the urgent application over and above another application filed on Friday challenging the search and seizure operaation. That application is set to be heard next week
"By this coming Wednesday the 3rd of April, the parties may have been able to resolve things; our client could have been processed and we could have avoided everything. But they wouldn't even give us no undertaking whatsoever,” Willis told the court.
Willis says there's no need to arrest Mapisa Nqakula.
“We didn't say that our client is entitled to any more rights than anyone else, she has equal rights. When we argue here, we can argue for any other citizen who otherwise was not a flight risk et cetera. I'm trying to bring it closer to home. It doesn’t matter who it is, but if it’s someone, and the facts are all similar to this - forget the identity - they shouldn’t have to be arrested either."
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