Deputy ministers, parliamentary committee chairpersons and a president of the ANC Youth League were among MPs who were publicly reprimanded by acting speaker Lechesa Tsenoli on Tuesday for failing to disclose their financial interests for 2023 within the deadline.
The National Assembly has imposed financial penalties on the offending MPs — Jerome Maake, Collen Malatji, Mandla Mandela, Phumeza Mpushe, Xolani Msimango, Xola Nqola, Nokuzola Tolashe, Mohatla Tseki, Judith Tshabalala and Sbongile Zuma.
Load-shedding, family reasons, IT glitches, travel and a car accident were among the reasons cited by the offending MPs for their failure to disclose their financial interests on time. Among them are two deputy ministers and three parliamentary committee chairpersons.
MPs had until September 30 2023 to disclose their financial interests. Failure to do so without an acceptable reason is a breach of the code of ethical conduct and disclosure of MPs’ interests.
'Unacceptable'
“This is unacceptable, objectionable and deserving of serious consequences,” said Tsenoli as he reprimanded the MPs on Tuesday.
He said it was apparent from the ethics committee’s report adopted by the house that the MPs were provided fair opportunity to present their records and not having done so, to adequately explain their failure as their actions had the potential to erode the public trust in parliament.
In its report the committee recommended the MPs be fined and reprimanded in front of their colleagues in the House.
A reprimand in the House is aimed at ensuring that discipline is meted out fairly, transparently and consistently, said Tsenoli.
The committee said Nokuzola Tolashe, the deputy minister in the Presidency responsible for women, youth and people with disabilities, apologised for not submitting her disclosure by the due date and indicated this was due to a family responsibility, later clarified to be a family bereavement that needed her attention in East London.
She also said she could not access the system to submit her declaration form due to load-shedding, among other reasons.
The committee found that she breached the code. It found she was repeat offender who breached the code in 2019 and recommended a stiffer penalty — a fine equal to 25 days’ salary and a reprimand in the House.
Deputy minister of water and sanitation Judith Tshabalala experienced “unexpected personal and professional challenges” that temporarily hindered her ability to submit her declaration within the stipulated time.
'Inexcusable to blame ICT staff'
“The member states that she used IT staff based in Pretoria who are familiar with the system to assist her, but that parliament’s ICT staff could not resolve the issues.
“The screenshots of the WhatsApp messages show that communication started at about 23h33 on Saturday, September 30, to the staff members in the Office of the Registrar.”
The committee rejected Tshabalala’s reason, saying it was inexcusable for her to blame staff for her nondisclosure when the communication started about 27 minutes before the end of the disclosure period on September 30.
She too was found to have breached the code, and it was recommended that she be fined a value equal to 20 days’ salary and receive a reprimand in the House.
Jerome Maake, who co-chairs the joint standing committee on intelligence, also failed to submit his disclosure by the due date.
When the acting registrar of members’ interests informed Maake about the alleged breach and invited him to provide reasons, he indicated that his car was involved in an accident in Polokwane on September 28. His laptop was in Tzaneen, and for the last few days before the closing date, he was attending to issues relating to his car and forgot about the disclosure.
The committee did not consider his reason valid for not disclosing his financial and registrable interests by the due date. It noted that the disclosure process was open for a month and Maake should not have left his disclosure for the proverbial “last minute”.
It found he had breached the code.
Maake asked the committee to consider that it was the first time in his 19 years at parliament that he was late and promised it would never happen again.
The committee rejected his excuse and recommended a fine equal to 20 days’ salary and that Maake be reprimanded in the House.
Family emergency
ANC Youth League president Collen Malatji also failed to disclose his financial interests.
Malatji blamed it on a family emergency but did not give details of the emergency or when it had occurred.
“He stated that he did not act in bad faith and that he is a first-time offender,” reads the committee report.
The committee rejected his reason, saying the family emergency could not have occurred for the entire month the disclosure was open.
It found Malatji had breached the code, and it recommended that he be fined a value equal to 20 days’ salary and that he be reprimanded in the House.
For his part, Mandla Mandela told the committee that in the previous 14 years since he became an MP, he submitted his disclosure on time but missed the deadline this time due to personal reasons.
“The member begged the indulgence of the committee and apologised profusely for not submitting his disclosure timeously.”
The committee did not accept Mandela’s explanation that he failed to provide a disclosure because of personal reasons and found that he had breached the code.
It recommended that he be fined a value equal to 20 days’ salary and he be reprimanded in the House.
Constitutional Review Committee chair Xola Nqola told the committee that after the burning of the National Assembly he only goes to the parliamentary precinct when he is instructed by his party whip to do so. This is because he does not have an office in parliament.
While he attended the vote on the removal from office of the public protector on September 11, he could not access ICT help on that day. The following day, he was again at the parliamentary precinct, but the ICT office was full, and ICT could not help all the members before the sitting of the House at 2pm.
Nqola said he left for the Eastern Cape on September 13 as he had to attend the provincial and regional manifesto review on the instruction of his political party. While there, the network signal in the area was bad.
He then sought the help of PX Limba Incorporated Attorneys to do his disclosures, but the people who were allocated to assist him were never readily or always available.
The committee found against Nqola and recommended he be fined a value equal to 20 days’ salary and that he be reprimanded in the House.
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