Ousted Masizole Mnqasela heads to court to get back job, DA membership

Axed Western Cape legislature speaker Masizole Mnqasela will be in the Cape Town high court on Thursday to try to get his job back.

Mnqasela also wants his DA membership reinstated. It was terminated in November after he made “disparaging remarks” about the party.

The embattled politician’s woes started in July when the DA’s federal legal commission charged him with misconduct after whistle-blowers accused him of fraud and corruption related to travel, entertainment and allowance claims. The party also reported him to the Hawks.

Mnqasela was hauled before a disciplinary hearing in October. On November 28, while the hearing was ongoing, the DA terminated his membership, removing him from the legislature and as speaker.

Former mobility MEC Daylin Mitchell assumed the latter role on Monday.

Ahead of Thursday's court hearing, Mnqasela said: “This is a fight for justice, freedom and equality.”

He is suing the DA, the deputy speaker of the legislature, its secretary, the speaker and premier Alan Winde. Employees in the speaker’s office have been cited as respondents.

Mnqasela wants the DA’s decision to terminate his membership set aside and for him to be restored as speaker. He also seeks to interdict the party from nominating another person to take his former job.

He brought the voluminous application on an urgent basis, denying being disparaging about the party.    

“I did not make the statement which the party identified in its letter of cessation, vis, that ‘the processes against [me are] a political witch hunt’,” his affidavit reads.

“To the extent my public statements on November 27 have been reported as such, the reports are misleading and incorrect. Taken in context, I merely stated that: ‘I dismiss all allegations [of fraud and corruption detailed in the so-called protected disclosures] as baseless, malicious and a political witch hunt.’

“This statement is neither disparaging of the party or ... its structures. Moreover, that this specific statement was neither subjectively nor objectively disparaging of the ‘[party] processes’ it is clear when considering this statement in context of other statements made during the 40-minute conference.”

Mnqasela said if whistle-blowers made a protected disclosure to Winde, the Protected Disclosures Act “did not authorise him to hand these disclosures to his party for an internal party investigation, as a substitute for a formal parliamentary enquiry”.

Mnqasela also delves into the fraud and corruption allegations made by the whistle-blowers.

“First, it is alleged that I instructed staff to enter ‘personal/private meetings that have nothing to do with [my] official duties and make them look official',” the affidavit continues.

“The protected disclosures describe these meetings as ‘fake’. The allegation goes that I did so in order that I may ‘lodge fictitious claims’ for travel and accommodation expenses ‘purporting them to be official’.”

He divided the incidents flagged by whistle-blowers into four.

“A single meeting with a DA mayor to seek his assistance with my alleged ‘cannabis business', which included overnight accommodation and a lunch in Cape Town with a ‘lady from my cannabis business’. A claim for R900 in respect of a lunch at a Cape Town restaurant to ‘celebrate the signing of [my] marriage certificate’.”

Mnqasela said he was accused of undertaking three trips to “allow me to attend private functions with family or friends before or after the scheduled ‘official’ meetings. He also listed several “engagements/meetings” that he allegedly instructed the whistle-blowers to record as official to claim from the state.

He said the whistle-blowers also accused him of claiming for a hotel allowance when attending sittings of the legislature, despite having declared his Cape Town residential property as his permanent residence.

“Reference is made to the fact that I rent accommodation in Hermanus, with some 50% of the rental being reimbursed by the [legislature] as an enabling allowance. While it is acknowledged that I am entitled to claim that latter allowance, the crux of this allegation is that the state ‘cannot pay twice for accommodation and that it is totally against policy'.”

Mnqasela said the allegations had no merit. He added that his meeting with the mayor was to discuss concerns raised by a local businessman regarding the interruption of electricity supply by the municipality.

He said the lunch with the “lady from my cannabis business” was with a sector education and training authority (Seta) consultant. He recalled that one of the whistle-blowers “teased me about having meetings with a woman when I am in a relationship”.

He denied owning a cannabis business, saying his dormant company, whose proposed business includes cannabis and hemp oil production, has never traded and the idea is “still in a research phase”.

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