Parliament’s public enterprises committee is seeking legal advice after a meeting, planned to discuss allegations of irregularities against minister Pravin Gordhan in the sale of SAA, turned into a tense standoff between him and MPs behind closed doors.
On Wednesday afternoon, the portfolio committee on public enterprises was scheduled to have a normal meeting with Gordhan to discuss allegations of irregularities in the process of securing a deal with a strategic equity partner for South African Airways (SAA).
Instead, the committee ended up holding discussions behind closed doors with the minister, with attending journalists kicked out of the meeting room as Gordhan insisted the meeting be held “in-camera”.
This was the second of two meetings that the committee held regarding SAA on Wednesday.
“This meeting was actually to receive documents from the minister, but there was a feeling from his side that it should be an in-camera meeting. But we reached an understanding that perhaps we would use the first session of this meeting to determine whether what is in those documents qualify to be an in-camera kind of meeting,” said ANC MP and public enterprises committee chairperson Khaya Magaxa.
Bullying is a very small word. We were bulldozed. It was bigger than that [bullying]. But we had to appeal to him. He’s a respectful man ... of high regard. Therefore we had to beg him at least to treat us like members of parliament, like his colleague
— Khaya Magaxa, public enterprises committee chairperson
“If it’s not the case, we will call the media in and continue the meeting. However, the process took very [much] long[er] than anticipated in terms of getting even the documents themselves.
“It took us two hours to get the documents. At long last, we got the documents and we had to look at the documents and we realised, with our own understanding, that we don’t see anything that needs confidentiality in those documents.”
The committee would refer the documents to the committee’s legal advisers to determine whether next week Wednesday’s meeting with the minister should be in-camera or open to the media and the public, he said. Legal advisers will provide clarity on the morning of the meeting.
The department supplied the committee with the sale and purchase agreement signed with Takatso and the shortlist of bidders, said Magaxa. The rules empowered the committee to make a determination whether a meeting can be in-camera or open to the public if there is a dispute in this regard.
Reporters waiting outside the committee room for a decision on whether they would be allowed into the meeting saw instances of Gordhan leaving the committee room, only to be followed by committee members, with whom he would quarrel before returning to the committee room.
Asked if the committee was bullying the minister, Magaxa said: “He made mention of that, but unfortunately that’s not correct. The minister, instead, was bulldozing us. Bullying is a very small word. We were bulldozed. It was bigger than that [bullying]. But we had to appeal to him. He’s a respectful man ... of high regard. Therefore we had to beg him at least to treat us like members of parliament, like his colleague.”
In a letter to Gordhan dated February 22, Magaxa said while the committee was not against any proposals for an in-camera meeting, it could not agree on the minister’s proposal for committee members to sign non-disclosure agreements over the meeting and its contents.
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