Shyaka Kanuma
Presidential adviser Titus Mafolo says he intends suing the state for R3-million after the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court suddenly, and with no explanations, dropped charges against him of fraud, perjury, defeating the ends of justice and contravention of the Commissioner of Oaths Act.
Mafolo was arrested earlier this year for what police said were contradictions in his statement, when he reported last year that he had been the victim of a car hijacking in Pretoria West. He was freed on R3000 bail after being accused of faking the hijacking.
”We are going ahead with civil action against the minister [Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshiwete], and the investigating officer [Inspector Steven Hermitage] for wrongful arrest,” Mafolo said in a statement mid-week. His attorney Teboho Mokoena accused Hermitage of spreading stories that Mafolo had ”hijacked himself” to claim insurance money.
In a development that cast doubt on the state’s case against the official, five suspects were arrested in Mamelodi between April 2 and 4, and have appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court in connection with the hijacking of Mafolo’s German luxury car. The car has since been found in Johannesburg.
Mafolo was making his fourth court appearance when the charges were dropped.