POLL | Do you believe Mapisa-Nqakula’s explanation that the wig was just a wig, not a bribe? - TimesLIVE

Former defence minister and ex-speaker of the National Assembly Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula is on trial in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria facing 12 counts of corruption and one count of money laundering.

She is accused of soliciting and receiving about R4.5m from Nombasa Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu, a businesswoman who supplied services to the South African National Defence Force between 2016 and 2019 while Mapisa-Nqakula was defence minister. She has pleaded not guilty and denied all the allegations against her.

Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu has since turned state witness. Earlier this year the court dismissed Mapisa-Nqakula’s application to have the charges against her thrown out.

The trial took an unexpected turn this week when testimony centred on a wig. The state’s case is that Mapisa-Nqakula and Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu used coded terms, including sangoma-related words such as indumba, impepho and amayeza, and “wig” and “padlock” to disguise requests for cash.

Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu testified she delivered R300,000 hidden beneath a wig to Mapisa-Nqakula at the defence VIP lounge at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg as the minister prepared to fly to Ethiopia in 2018, and said the wig was code for the money.

Taking the stand in her own defence, Mapisa-Nqakula rejected that version, insisting the wig was nothing more than a hairpiece.

Mapisa-Nqakula told the court she admired Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu’s hair at a defence industry exhibition in September 2018 and asked where she could get a similar wig, after which Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu offered to organise one for her. She said she does not normally wear wigs, preferring a shaved head or a doek but wanted a light, short, bob-cut piece to try something different. She also denied claims that she berated Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu over the delivery.

The exchange has drawn wide attention, momentarily shifting a serious corruption case into a debate over hairstyles, even as the more substantial allegations, including a separate claim that she demanded a R2m bribe to help secure Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu’s husband’s promotion, continue to be tested in court this week.