Mapisa-Nqakula resigns as National Assembly Speaker, MP

After losing her court bid to stave off her arrest in the High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday, Mapisa-Nqakula has to voluntarily hand herself over to police or face arrest.

When approaching the courts on an urgent basis, the speaker had contended she could only avail herself to police on Wednesday, 3 April, when her lawyer, Steven May, would be available to accompany her to the police station. 

However, there was no sign of her at the Lyttleton police station on Wednesday. 

“I have made this decision in order uphold the integrity and sanctity of our parliament, an apex institution of our system of government, representing the people of South Africa as a whole,” she said in a statement. 

 “Given the seriousness of the much-publicised allegations against me, I cannot continue in this role.

“As a country's chief lawmaker, I hold a central responsibility to protect and preserve the integrity of parliament by ensuring that my actions ensure that its sacred work must continue without blemish.” 

In the statement deposed by the section 204 witness, Mapisa-Nqakula is accused of soliciting and pocketing bribes of more than R2.3 million from a prominent army contractor.

She failed in her urgent court bid to have what she dubs her “unlawful” arrest interdicted after Judge Sulet Potteril found that she had been treated with leniency and courtesy when state representatives told her, in March, to hand herself over.

When striking the matter of the roll for lack of urgency, Potteril said that the court was not able to dictate to the state how it must conduct its case.

Speaking after the court judgment, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Mthunzi refused to state when - if at all - the speaker would be arrested.

“We don’t discuss issues of arrest, evidential issues, witnesses, investigative processes in the media. But obviously, the wheels of justice will now be in motion.”

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