Nathi Mthethwa slammed by portfolio committee for non-attendance

Sports, arts and culture minister Nathi Mthethwa has come under fire in parliament as MPs on the portfolio committee accused him of undermining them by not attending their meetings.

The committee, which is supposed to oversee the work of the sports, arts and culture department, met on Tuesday to be briefed by Swimming SA (SSA) on allegations of child sexual abuse that have engulfed the swimming body.

The committee was also briefed by the leadership of the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) on the performance of Team SA at the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, among other things.

The virtual session started seamlessly with welcoming remarks by committee chairperson Beauty Dlulane and adoption of the agenda, but things became heated as soon as committee secretary Zoleka Kula announced an apology from Mthethwa for not attending.

Mthethwa is in Nigeria as part of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s delegation visiting four West African states.

The EFF and the DA were not happy with Mthethwa’s absence, saying he has not attended a committee meeting since parliament returned from recess in early October.

“We ask you as the chair to write an e-mail to the minister and ask him if he is aware of these dates and meetings,” said the DA’s Tsepo Mhlongo.

“I believe the minister must prioritise internal issues because he is the minister of sports, arts and culture, not the minister of international affairs. I am concerned, because since we came back from the recess, he never came to this committee to account.”

Deputy sports minister Nocawe Mafu acknowledged Mhlongo’s concern as “genuine” but defended Mthethwa’s absence.

“You must also remember that when the president goes on state visits, he chooses the ministers that he would like to accompany him depending on the agenda that will be discussed.

“Among other issues that will be discussed in Nigeria is the relationship on the arts and culture side.

“The ministers of agriculture and environment are [also] part of that delegation ... I just wanted to clarify,” Mafu said.

The ANC’s Vuyisile Malomane also came to Mthethwa’s defence.

“Last week we discussed this issue of non-attendance and finalised that if there are issues for the minister to account for, we can always write e-mails or letters to the minister. Let us write to him the questions or anything that we are concerned about.”

The meeting debated Mthethwa’s absence for almost an hour before Dlulane tried to move on to the next item.

Mhlongo claimed Mthethwa was not responding to e-mails. “Malomane wants us to engage the minister via e-mails, but he is not responding to our e-mails.”

Mhlongo was backed by the EFF’s Makoti Sibongile Khawula.

“To support ... Mhlongo, myself, there are e-mails which I have sent to him and I find that he is one minister who has a problem to respond to e-mails,” Khawula said.

“I don’t know if it is because I write to him in isiZulu, because English is not his mother tongue.

“There are issues we need to ask him directly, not the deputy minister, and we are not being confrontational here, we are just asking for accountability.

“Why does he go on a state visit with the president? He has failed in his duties in this committee and he must resign.”

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