South Africa’s former parliamentary speaker was Thursday arrested as part of a corruption inquiry in the latest scandal to hit the governing African National Congress (ANC) party before elections in May.
Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, who resigned as speaker on Wednesday, was formally detained after handing herself in to police near Pretoria, prosecutors said.
The ANC veteran was due to appear before a judge and be formally charged with corruption and money laundering, Henry Mamothame, a spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority, told AFP.
“She’s appearing at the Pretoria magistrates court,” Mamothame said.
Coming just under two months before national elections, the case has added to the woes of the ANC, which is struggling in the polls amid a weak economy and accusations of official corruption and mismanagement.
Mapisa-Nqakula is the latest in a string of senior ANC politicians, including the president and vice-president, to be embroiled in corruption scandals.
The 67-year-old is accused of soliciting sizeable amounts in bribes from a former military contractor during her previous tenure as defence minister. She denies the allegations.
On Wednesday, Mapisa-Nqakula resigned as speaker and as a lawmaker with immediate effect, a day after losing an attempt in court to prevent her possible arrest.
In her resignation letter, she maintained her innocence but said she had decided to step down to uphold the integrity of parliament and focus on the investigation against her.
“Given the seriousness of the much-publicised allegations against me, I cannot continue in this role,” she wrote.
The move followed a March raid carried out by members of an investigative team at Mapisa-Nqakula’s residence, a high-end property in an eastern suburb of Johannesburg.
Local media reports said she had allegedly solicited 2.3m rand (£96,000) in bribes from a former military contractor.
Parliament said she would be replaced by her deputy, Lechesa Tsenoli. However, on Thursday, the leading opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, called for a new speaker to be urgently elected.
Mapisa-Nqakula served as defence minister between 2014 and 2021 before being appointed speaker in a move that drew criticism from the opposition.
At the time, she had come under fire for perceived incompetence in responding to a spate of deadly unrest in which more than 300 people were killed.
South Africans head to the polls in national and provincial elections on 29 May.
ANC’s share of the vote is expected to drop below 50 percent for the first time since the advent of democracy in 1994, potentially forcing it to form a coalition with rival parties to remain in power.
By Agencies
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