DA leader John Steenhuisen has warned the ANC against repeating the same mistakes from the past when it rejected the establishment of an ad hoc committee into state capture.
Steenhuisen said by standing against the establishment of an ad hoc committee into the Phala Phala scandal, the ANC was repeating the same mistake on state capture in 2016.
The ANC does not believe parliament has the capabilities to probe the scandal involving allegations that millions of dollars were stolen at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s farm in 2020 and that measures were put in place to keep the theft a secret through clandestine operations involving the police and intelligence apparatus.
Parliament, ANC MP Regina Lesoma argued, should instead wait for the investigation by the Hawks, SA Revenue Service, the office of the public protector to be concluded as those are the rightful law enforcement agencies to probe the matter.
Starting another parliamentary process would also undermine the impeachment process into Ramaphosa, where a panel has been appointed to determine whether there was prima facie evidence of misconduct by the president, the ANC argued.
Can you not see history repeating itself before your eyes? The new speaker of the house is no different to the old speaker. She’s failing parliament in the exact same way as her predecessors. There is simply no truth to her assertion or the assertions of Honourable [Regina] Lesoma that an ad-hoc committee of parliament is superfluous since some of its tasks are in the purview of other entities such as law enforcement.
— John Steenhuisen, DA leader
Steenhuisen told the ANC that even if Ramaphosa conceded at the state capture commission that parliament would have been justified to have undertaken its own process, Phala Phala remained an issue to be addressed.
“Yet here we are again. A sitting president who looks to be guilty of a string of offences, but he knows he can count on his caucus and presiding officers to shut down questions, to bat away accountability and to deny any possibility of oversight through an ad hoc committee,” Steenhuisen said.
“Can you not see history repeating itself before your eyes. The new speaker of the house is no different to the old speaker. She’s failing parliament in the exact same way as her predecessors. There is simply no truth to her assertion or the assertions of Honourable [Regina] Lesoma that an ad hoc committee of parliament is superfluous since some of its tasks are in the purview of other entities such as law enforcement.”
Steenhuisen, speaking at a mini plenary on Tuesday, argued that the impeachment process and the ad hoc committee would be seized with probing different elements.
The section 89 process, Steenhuisen charged, would only focus on the president and his alleged conduct, while the ad hoc committee would probe the Phala Phala saga in its entirety.
“It’s not one or the other, the president must co-operate with both law enforcement and parliament, neither is there any legitimacy to the argument that the section 89 inquiry into the president will perform the same function as the ad hoc committee.”
“That impeachment process only looks at the president’s role in the Phala Phala story, but the rot is spread much further. Aside from the dirty dollars in the couch, we need answers from among others the state security agency, the finance portfolio committee, the presidential protection unit, the Reserve Bank and the department of international relations and cooperation. None of those answers will come from a section 89 inquiry. The only body with the power to summon all these people and institutions to testify is an ad hoc committee of this parliament,” Steenhuisen said.
The majority of parties in parliament support the establishment of an ad hoc committee.
The EFF’s Omphile Maotwe on Tuesday said it was worrying that the gains achieved in parliament were being reversed. She said so much has changed since the red berets arrived in parliament.
“We should be very worried that the gains we worked hard for in the fifth parliament are being destroyed. When the EFF arrived in parliament we found people sleeping, eating sandwiches, playing games on their phones and having a good time, while the corrupt and incompetent ruling party did its thing,” Maotwe said.
“If they think they are going to sweep the Phala Phala saga under the carpet, we want them to listen carefully, we’re going to deal with Ramadollars and we will deal with him thoroughly and decisively. It is a matter of time because we know Mr Ramaphosa’s time is coming to an end very soon. We need parliament to do its work, represent our people and represent them without fear or favour.”
She vowed that the EFF would fight to ensure Ramaphosa is held accountable.
She argued that the ad hoc committee would be able to ask questions such as:
- After the R60m that was hidden under the mattress was stolen, why was there no burglary and theft case opened at the police station?
- When Mr Ramaphosa instructed state officials in the police and state intelligence to torture a domestic, who was involved?
- Which rule or law did senior officials of the SA Police Service, including the now national commissioner, who was rewarded for abuse of state resources, follow?
- What was the role of the crime intelligence division of the SAPS in the Phala Phala saga?
- When senior police officers met their Namibian counterparts in no man’s land, on what case number were they working on? What was the role of the deputy minister of state security? Who authorised the use of the police helicopter?
- Why did the SA Reserve Bank fail to deal with R60m in US dollars that entered the country without the necessary declaration.
“There seems to be confusion about the role of an ad hoc committee and the section 89 committee that is going to impeach Mr Ramaphosa. We know that this confusion is meant to mislead our people,” she said.
“There is no confusion and there is no duplication, the ad hoc committee is going to deal with various issues that cut across different government departments, including the failure of the Reserve Bank, the financial intelligence centre and many other departments that got involved in the cover up. The section 89 inquiry will deal with separate matters, and we will get to that when the time comes. Let’s allow the panel to do its work, we want the panel that is independent and does not have Ramaphosa praise singers.”
Voting on the establishment of the ad hoc committee will take place in a full National Assembly plenary on Wednesday.
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