Winnie Madikizela-Mandela had given ”fuzzy” answers and ”bad evidence” in her fraud and theft trial, the Pretoria Regional Court heard on Tuesday.
”She was fuzzy in her answers,” Jan Ferreira, for the State, told the court.
”Her evidence was so bad that one could equate it to not having testified at all.”
The African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) president and her co-accused, broker Addy Moolman, have pleaded not guilty to 60 charges of fraud and 25 of theft.
The State alleges that official ANCWL letters, which carried Madikizela-Mandela’s signature, were used to fraudulently obtain loans from Saambou Bank for people not in the league’s employ.
The theft charges relate to amounts of R360 deducted from loan applicants’ bank accounts for a funeral policy that allegedly did not exist.
Concluding her testimony last month, Madikizela-Mandela said she signed the documents her secretary brought to her without checking them.
Ferreira argued on Tuesday: ”One would, however, expect…. that a former deputy minister and now president of an esteemed organisation… would diligently take notice of the exact content of documents she attaches her signature to.”
The South African Press Association (Sapa) also reported that a young woman disrupted the trial at one point when she tried to enter the dock.
The intruder shouted: ”The law in South Africa is on paper.” One of Madikizela-Mandela’s bodyguards stopped the woman from reaching Madikizela-Mandela.
As he carried the young woman from the courtroom, she protested: ”This is sexual harassment.”
The reasons for her conduct were not immediately clear, and court proceedings resumed after a brief adjournment. – Sapa