Speaker a suspect in human smuggling case

• Published date: 23 January 2022
• Author: Mzilikazi Wa Afrika
• Publication title: Sunday Tribune

In an email sent to Mapisa-Nqakula’s lawyer, seen by Independent Media, police confirmed that “yes, the Speaker of Parliament (sic) 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 cooperating 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 cooperation 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, up 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.

Mapisa-Nqakula claimed at the time that she had rescued Wege from her abusive father. But the father, Laurent Wege, denied ever abusing his daughter and revealed that he had 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 said his daughter was planning to marry Mapisa-Nqakula’s son, Chumani, before the young man was stabbed to death in October 2015.

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