The 56-year-old Margaret-Ann Diedricks appeared before the court Thursday morning to face charges of money laundering, fraud corruption, and contravention of the public finance management Act (PFMA).

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She was granted R100 000 bail by Magistrate Joseph Khabisi after the state, represented by Advocate Tammy McPherson, did not oppose bail.

She allegedly received a kickback of  R7 million from the failed project after she contracted a service provider. She was arrested at home in Alberton, Gauteng, on Wednesday after she was notified by the Free State police about her alleged involvement.

Her arrest comes whilst the asbestos case - involving suspects such as the suspended ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule, former Free State MEC of Human Settlements Olly Mlamleli, former Free State HOD Nthimotse Mokhesi, and businessman Edwin Sodi - is already in its pretrial stages in the High Court. She now joins over ten suspects with the aforementioned suspects and she appears alongside them on 23 September 2022.

ALSO READ: #AsbestosGate case postponed yet again

In her witness affidavit in court, she told the court that she has fixed assets of over R6 million.

She intends not to plead guilty and she has already given her two passports to the authorities to comply with the bail conditions set out for her. She since vowed not to interfere with state witnesses and not to jeopardise the justice system.

The provincial Hawks spokesperson, Christopher Singo, said it's alleged that during the period between 2014 and 2017, an irregular contract was awarded to a service provider for the eradication of asbestos roofs by the Free State Department of Human Settlements.

"The suspect, who was the Acting HOD of the Department of Human Settlements in Gauteng, also authorised the same service provider irregularly in Gauteng. She then fraudulently received an amount of more than R7 million from the service provider," he added.

OFM News