SA Court Declares Moroadi Cholota’s US Extradition Unlawful

The Free State High Court in Bloemfontein has ruled that the extradition of Moroadi Cholota—former personal assistant to the ex-Free State premier, Ace Magashule—from the United States was unlawful, stripping the court of jurisdiction to try her in the ongoing R255 million asbestos corruption case.

Judge Philip Loubser, presiding over the trial, delivered the judgement on Tuesday after a trial-within-a-trial to determine the legality of her extradition. The ruling followed testimony from two Hawks officers, Benjamin Calitz and Nicholas “Nico” Gerber, who travelled to the US in 2021 to question Cholota, who was initially listed as a state witness.

False Claims and Legal Irregularities Exposed

Cholota argued that her extradition was politically motivated and based on false representations made by South African officials to the US authorities. She claimed she was charged after refusing to implicate Magashule. The court found significant merit in her arguments.

“What appears pertainently clear is that it is undeniable that the state presented false and incorrect information to United States authorities,” said Judge Loubser.
“Two South African courts have already made this finding and the US authorities relied on this information in good faith and actioned the extradition on an unknowingly unlawful basis.”

Loubser emphasised that this misrepresentation rendered the extradition process void and, as a result, the South African criminal court has no jurisdiction to try her.

“The unlawfulness of the extradition renders the jurisdiction of the South African criminal court void.”

Cholota’s Road to Court

Cholota had been studying in Washington D.C. on a Free State government bursary since 2019. According to testimony, she was warned in August 2022 that her bursary could be terminated due to her lack of cooperation with investigators. She was officially stripped of the bursary in October 2022 and later arrested in Baltimore in April 2024. She was extradited to South Africa four months later.

While originally charged with fraud, corruption, and money laundering, two of those charges were later withdrawn.

On Tuesday, Judge Loubser remarked: “Although it remains a mystery to this court why the counts in question were put to the accused number 17 at all in view of the terms of the extradition order, it will not be necessary for the prosecution to stop the prosecution in relation to those charges.”

Cholota previously challenged the extradition in both US and South African courts, including an appeal to the Constitutional Court, which was dismissed in July 2024 for lack of urgency.

She was released on R2,500 bail after spending nearly five months in detention across two countries. Tuesday’s ruling could mark a turning point in the asbestos corruption trial, where she had been named as Accused No. 17.

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