The pair faced charges relating to claims that Kodwa received gratuities worth more than R1.6 million in return for his influence on multi-million pound IT tenders for the government.

Kodwa and MacKay appeared briefly in the Specialized Commercial Crimes Court in Palm Ridge on Friday morning.

During an earlier court appearance, Magistrate Phillip Venter said he could not rule out the possibility of further adjournments should new information be brought before the court.

“I note Mr Cordwell’s request that the court should consider marking this as a final remand for the purposes of the outcome of his submissions. Whenever a remand application is made, the court must assess whether good justification has been provided to the court by the applicant so that he can obtain preventive detention.

“I have to weigh that against the length of time we are going to have to postpone the matter and the harm suffered not only by you but also by the states and their witnesses who are waiting for their opportunity to testify in court. So there are a magnitude of issues that I have to weigh every time a deferral request is made. A deferral request is not there to be taken.

“You have to be motivated, now. Part of my assessment is, and that is from a case flow management perspective. So far, I am satisfied that every time I have heard a request for remand, progress is being made “. quickly. I don’t see any undue delays occurring at this time.

“It may happen that before November 1, your legal representatives receive a communication from the Public Prosecutor’s office requesting certain additional information from you, and that information may materially affect the outcome of that representation, even favoring you, which may cause another imprisonment preventive. be granted by the court.”

During court proceedings on Friday morning, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) informed the court of the decision to withdraw the charges.

“The learned will note that attached to today’s (Friday) appearance is correspondence from the deputy director of Gauteng Advocate Chauke dated 31 October 2024 and the decision is that the charges against both accused should be withdrawn. As a result, the state now dropping charges against the accused.”

Speaking to the media outside the court, Kodwa said he was ready to get back to work.

“I am truly grateful to be able to speak to you now as a free man. I am more prepared to resume my responsibilities. My responsibility now is to ensure that I align myself with the activities of the African National Congress (ANC).

“Now I am in the job market, now I am available, I can be a journalist. As you know, I am unemployed.”

Kodwa explained his decision as to why he decided to resign from his position as a minister and member of Parliament at the beginning of the case.

He also stepped aside as a member of the ANC’s National Labor Committee and National Executive Committee.

“When we found out about this, on the same day we appeared, we made the decision as a minister to resign. It was not an easy decision because there is no law that requires that if you are accused as a sitting minister, you must resign, but I thought it would be inappropriate that a serving minister would have all these positions.

“Let me ask the president to release me and we will consider it, and we will have time to deal with this matter. Thereafter and simultaneously, in accordance with the resolutions of the 55th ANC conference, I will withdraw from all activities of the African national congress and all This happened without any structure.

“I made both decisions voluntarily and that was quite important, but it was also important that we needed to uphold the principle of the rule of law that we are equal before the law. “Whether we are ministers, if the alleged crime was committed in 2015, we are now in 2020. We are not a minister at that time, I was not in the government; I could not influence anything at that time, I was just a mere spokesperson.

“Despite all those reservations and observations, it was important that I affirm the principle that you are equal before the law and I gave my full cooperation to the authorities of this country, to the hawks, to the NPA, and I am sure that in our first application when we were submitting a bill application and my representative, Mr. Majavu, read very clearly how much we did to cooperate greatly with the authorities.

“It is very important and we must say it as leadership, so that there is no impression that there is preferential treatment towards anyone. I was telling someone who came here on the first day that they put me inside Oxfam, not because I am a minister. I understood that “Anyone should go through that and it’s important to reaffirm those principles of equality, but no one is above the law,” Kodwa said.

National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane said the decision to drop the prosecution is based on the successful representations made by the accused to the Public Prosecution Office, which were thoroughly examined together with the evidentiary material contained in the case file. , the reports of the prosecutor and the Regional Head of the Specialized Unit for Commercial Crimes and consult the Investigating Officer.

“Part 6 of the NPA Prosecution Policy Directives provides for the representation process in which an accused person may apply for review of a decision to prosecute as an available remedy, in which the accused is granted the opportunity to present your version of events.

“His version of events is weighed against the interests of justice, together with the factors mentioned above. The Public Prosecutor’s Office had a duty to take into account that the prospects for a successful prosecution have diminished due to changed circumstances, brought about by new events that came to light, despite an initial decision to initiate a process.” Mjondwane said.

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