Mapisa-Nqakula says witness was at ceremony — TimesLIVE
Former South African Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria that state witness Nombasa Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu was present at her indumba — a space for traditional healing — in 2015. According to the former minister, she did not then know who the person sitting near the entrance was.
TimesLIVE reports on the court proceedings. Mapisa-Nqakula says she learned that it had allegedly been Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu only after her arrest in 2024, when a close person told her so.
The 2015 ceremony
Mapisa-Nqakula told the court that in 2015 she returned to South Africa from abroad after the death of her son. According to her, many people came to her home during the mourning period, while another of her sons suffered an epileptic seizure because of stress.
As a traditional healer, she invited senior healer Gogo Stella and other healers to the indumba to pray and conduct a traditional ritual related to her son's death. During the ceremony, she saw a person sitting in the doorway with their back to the room. Mapisa-Nqakula said she offered the person the option of coming inside if they were a traditional healer, or leaving the premises.
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The former minister also said that Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu did not mention this episode or her son's death during their subsequent contacts in 2016–2019. Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu had previously testified that she visited Mapisa-Nqakula's home during that period as part of an official South African National Defence Force delegation.
Corruption charges
Mapisa-Nqakula is charged with 12 counts of corruption and one count of money laundering related to her work as defence minister in 2016–2019. According to the prosecution, she allegedly demanded 4.5 million rand in bribes from Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu, a logistics contractor for the South African National Defence Force, in exchange for assistance in obtaining and retaining state contracts. The prosecution claims that 2.1 million rand of that amount was delivered in cash.
Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu previously testified that she first met Mapisa-Nqakula in 2016 at the OR Tambo International Airport hotel. According to her, she sought the meeting because of alleged bribe demands made on the minister's behalf by former defence secretary Sam Gulube. Mapisa-Nqakula denied this version, saying that they were connected only by their shared calling as traditional healers.
