BLF copied our letter to Parliament‚ says Brown’s spokesman

A letter the Black First Land First movement sent to the Parliamentary Committee interrogating state capture at Eskom was “copied” from a letter sent to the same committee by Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown days before.

This according to Brown’s spokesman‚ Colin Cruywagen‚ who on Monday said journalists should ask the BLF why they copied the letter.

Brown wrote two letters to the committee chairperson on August 8 and again on October 16 “seeking clarity” on the terms of reference and the nature of the inquiry while the BLF’s letter was sent on October 19‚ Cruywagen explained.

“Minister Brown made it clear she will comply with the Parliamentary process and cooperate fully with the portfolio committee‚” Cruywagen said.

“It’s also clear the BLF submitted their letter on October 19. Ask the BLF why the copied Minister Brown’s letter‚” he added.

The similarity between letters written by BLF leader Andile Mngxitama and Brown questioning the inquiry into Eskom has raised eyebrows on social media.

EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu tweeted photographs of the two letters‚ both of which challenge the validity of the parliamentary committee on public enterprises’ inquiry into state capture allegations relating to Eskom.

“We said all along that DPE and BLF Gupta militia are run from the same Saxonwold office‚” Shivambu tweeted.

The letters are remarkably similar. The questions are phrased in the exact same manner and order and deal with the same topics and concerns which include a possible conflict of interest arising with the evidence leader‚ terms of reference having not been made public and if the veracity of the leaked Gupta emails could be relied on.

Mngxitama meanwhile said he had “found the questions on a WhatsApp group”.

“It's not the whole letter as you can see; only the relevant questions. I found the questions on a what's up (sic) group as I was writing to parliament and couldn't locate [the] author‚” he said adding that in the final edit‚ the parentheses were mistakenly removed.

“You can see only the questions are lifted from the letter which we now know is from the DPE. We apologise for any embarrassment this may have caused. We should have acknowledged that the questions were lifted from another source. I take full responsibility for this oversight‚” Mngxitama said.

“The questions remain relevant and must be answered; why is parliament running away from this?”

He added that BLF had instructed lawyers to launch proceedings to apply for an interdict against the committee and the speaker and has also asked for the removal of Pravin Gordhan from the committee.

“We believe Parliament is captured by White monopoly capital and it’s covering up white corruption. Pravin is there to cover up the corruption of WMC‚” Mngxitama said.

The inquiry was due to continue this week‚ but was postponed without any reasons provided.