South Africa's ex-parliament speaker arrested in graft probe

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00:00 Nice muscle in Cape Town you need what more can you tell us?

00:02 Yeah, so court proceedings are currently underway in the Pretoria Magistrates Court now before this the

00:10 Now former speaker handed herself over to authorities this morning now before she handed herself over

00:17 She lost two court applications this week in which she tried to prevent her arrest

00:22 but the court has set aside those applications kind of ultimately paving the way for her to be either arrested or

00:30 Hand herself over to the police now

00:32 She arrived at the Lyttelton police station this morning and was taken to the Pretoria Magistrates Court where she is currently

00:38 So far the state indicated it will not oppose bail now the charges that she faces

00:46 Are 12 charges of corruption and one of money laundering

00:50 when she was defense minister between

00:53 2017 and 19 according to the state she received 2.5 million rand in bribes from a businesswoman

01:00 Who now has turned state witness now, although the state will not oppose bail

01:05 Due to the seriousness of the charges against her my piece of my cool

01:11 Defense will have to convince the court that it's in the interests of justice that she be granted bail

01:17 And those proceedings are currently underway

01:21 Eunice this is just the latest scandal to hit the governing ANC party ahead of elections coming up in may

01:27 What does this mean for the ANC?

01:29 Yeah, so she resigned as the speaker of the national assembly and as a member of parliament

01:36 Which she said was not an admission of guilt, but rather an obligation

01:41 Towards the ruling party the ANC now by resigning

01:45 She has relieved the ANC from defending her during a possible vote of no confidence in parliament

01:53 The national election as you've mentioned is less than two months from now

01:57 And her resignation saved the ruling party from difficult situations such as protecting her in public

02:03 And it saved the party to defend its controversial step aside rule of officials who face corruption charges

02:09 But have not been found guilty by a court and so they remain in their positions

02:16 My piece on the other hand has stepped aside and politically that was safer

02:22 It is safer for the ANC ahead of the elections right now

02:26 Eunice thanks for that Eunice Masson speaking to me from Cape Town

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