Speaker a suspect in ‘smuggling’ case

EIGHT years after former defence minister, now Speaker of Parliament, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula allegedly smuggled a Burundian national, Michelle Wege, into South Africa on an air force chartered jet, the police have named her as a suspect in the case.

In an email sent to Mapisa-Nqakula’s lawyer, seen by Independent Media, police confirmed that “yes, the Speaker of Parliament is regarded as a suspect”.

“The charges are on the Immigration Act, and also The Defence Act, 2002 (Act no 42 of 2002), as well as contravention of the Public Finance Management Act 1999 (Act no 1 of 1999),” the email stated.

Further, that “more charges will be added when the indictment is issued”.

Independent Media can exclusively reveal that police wrote to Mapisa-Nqakula’s lawyer, Cliff Alexander, in November, in a bid to get her warning statement, and named her as a suspect in the case, which violated immigration laws.

Approached for comment, Alexander yesterday responded that the investigative officer directed correspondence to one of the Speaker’s staff, to which they responded without undue delay.

“The Speaker, like any other suspect, is not obliged to furnish the SAPS with an explanation and is entitled to remain silent. The Speaker, acting on legal advice, has exercised her constitutional right not to furnish the SAPS with an explanation and has elected to remain silent and advised the SAPS accordingly.

“The SAPS member/s who allege that the Speaker is not co-operating is/are being duplicitous. Since our last correspondence to the SAPS, they have elected not to revert to either ourselves or our client. The Speaker has offered her full co-operation within the prescripts of the law and will continue to do so,” Alexander said in a statement.

Reports that Mapisa-Nqakula had smuggled Wege into the country surfaced in 2014 and, until now, it seemed the matter had died down.

In spite of repeated media reports about the incident, Mapisa-Nqakula

has climbed the political ladder with impunity.

Mapisa-Nqakula claimed at the time that she had rescued Wege from her abusive father. But her father, Laurent Wege, denied ever abusing his daughter, and revealed that he had business relations with Mapisa-Nqakula that soured, and that his daughter was dating one of the minister’s sons at the time.

The businessman claimed his daughter was planning to marry Mapisa-Nqakula’s son, Chumani, before the young man was tragically stabbed to death in October 2015.

When Mapisa-Nqakula rescued Wege, she was arrested and detained for 10 days in the Democratic Republic of Congo, after trying to board a flight from Kinshasa to Johannesburg using fake documents.

Wege allegedly got the fake documents from Mapisa-Nqakula’s sister, Nosithembele Nontobeko Mapisa, who worked in the Burundi embassy at the time. Mapisa-Nqakula allegedly used her influence as defence minister at the time to charter an air force jet to Kinshasa, where she flew the 22-yearold to South Africa without a valid passport.

The South African ambassador to the DRC at the time, Ntsiki Mashimbye, refused to meet Mapisa-Nqakula during her visit after he became aware of her mission.

Mapisa-Nqakula, with her entourage of six senior government officials, which included two defence force generals, landed at Waterkloof Air Force Base on January 28, 2014, with Wege, who was travelling on a fake passport.

Sources with intimate knowledge of the investigation confirmed that police have been trying to obtain statements from all the officials on that flight.

“Letters (were) sent to the defence force about three weeks ago, requesting the list of all the passengers who were on that flight so police can obtain statements from them,” one of the sources said.

The DA shadow minister of defence, Kobus Marais, who opened the criminal case against Mapisa-Nqakula, said yesterday that police had been trying to get a warning statement from the Speaker.

“The case has been dragging on because I understand Mapisa-Nqakula is allegedly not co-operating with the police investigation,” Marais said.

Four sources have told Independent Media that Wege allegedly fled the minister’s house in Bedfordview and returned to live with her father, the same man Mapisa-Nqakula claimed had been abusing her.

“I won’t be surprised if Michelle was smuggled out of the country as the net is closing in on Nosiviwe,” one of the sources said.

Another said Wege had left her young baby at the minister’s house when she ran away. “Apparently, the baby isn’t Chumani’s as Michelle fell pregnant after he had passed away.”

Sources in Burundi say she is living with her father in Norway, but the Weges could not be reached for comment.