ANC MP guilty of misleading parliament

Senior ANC MP Yolanda Botha has been found guilty by the party's ethics committee of "wilfully misleading parliament" about alleged kickbacks she received from a company to which she had given tenders worth more than R50-million.

ANC MP Ben Turok told reporters in parliament on Thursday that Botha, chairman of the social development portfolio committee, would receive a reprimand and a fine of 30 days' salary for the offence.

"The committee resolved that Ms Botha is guilty of the breaches... for one, non-disclosure of registrable interests, two, wilfully misleading parliament," Turok said, reading from a statement.

"The penalty imposed as stipulated in the joint rules at rule 19 in the code of conduct is a. reprimand. b. a fine of 30 days' salary."

The allegations stemmed from an article in the Mail & Guardian newspaper that Botha and her family "received kickbacks from a company to which she assigned tenders worth more than R50-million when she was an official in the Northern Cape provincial government".

According to the report documents showed that after Botha had signed off property leases between the provincial social services department, which she headed at the time, and property group Trifecta, "her family was allocated a 10% stake in the group holding company".

Within a year, the property company had "also renovated Botha's Kimberley home.

Botha was quoted in the Mail & Guardian report denying any corruption and saying the stake in Trifecta for her relatives did not constitute a benefit for herself.

She said the home renovation was a loan which she would repay.

"My only relationship is as described above and is not and has never been either corrupt or inappropriate," she was quoted as saying.

Turok said the committee had found the renovation of Botha's house constituted a benefit in terms of the code.

The 10% of shares she had been allocated from Trifecta were also a benefit.

The affidavit she submitted under oath on the loan agreement for R500 000 when the costs were more than R1.2-million was "a wilful misleading of the committee".