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Four of parliament’s committee chairs have been accused of significant ethical violations over the past three years, but only one investigation into those alleged breaches has been finalised, and there is no certainty about when any of the other probes will be completed.
Bongani Bongo, Faith Muthambi, Tina Joemat-Pettersson and Mosebenzi Zwane, all former ministers under former president Jacob Zuma, have been subjects of complaints made to parliament’s joint committee on ethics and members interests between 2016 and 2018.
Only one of these complaints has been resolved: with a decision not to investigate Joemat-Pettersson. But the remaining former ministers have spent years with unresolved accusations, ranging from bribery to misleading parliament, hanging over their heads.
So why are these cases taking so long to resolve? Are there procedural reasons for the delays, or is there simply a lack of political will to see these complaints ventilated and finalised?
Parliamentary spokesperson Moloto Mothapo told Business Day on Thursday that “you can’t impose timeframes” on the “due process” and resolution of ethical complaints against MPs.
“The committee deals with issues as expeditiously as it could, and observing all principles of natural justice.”
Bongo, the former state security minister, recently tried and failed to convince the Western Cape high court to order the ethics committee to finalise its bribery investigation against him, arguing that the committee had taken too long to do so. That claim was dismissed as “ironic” by judge Ashley Binns-Ward, who pointed out that the ethics inquiry had been put on ice as a result of Bongo’s own court action.
Ntuthuzelo Vanara, the evidence leader of the parliamentary inquiry into the capture of Eskom, Transnet and Denel, claimed in October 2017 that Bongo offered him a “blank cheque” if he would suppress the investigation. Business Day has confirmed that the Hawks have completed a criminal investigation into these claims and provided a finalised docket to the National Prosecuting Authority in May.
Yet there is still no certainty on when the ethics committee, which is charged with ensuring that MPs act in a manner that does not violate public trust, will proceed with its investigation into Bongo.
Zwane faces accusations that he lied to parliament and violated the Powers, Privilege and Immunities Act when he stated, in a written response to questions, that his December 2015 trip to Dubai was organised and paid for by the department of mineral resources, when he was serving as its minister.
Then public protector Thuli Madonsela’s “State of Capture” report, however, found that Zwane had not used the ticket the department purchased for him to travel from Zurich to Dubai, and leaked Gupta e-mails listed the minister, along with Tony Gupta, as a passenger on a Gupta-sponsored flight that was cleared to fly to Dubai on December 2 2015. The DA released a statement about its ethics complaint against Zwane in June 2017, but there appears to be no record of its progress.
Muthambi, then minister of public service and administration, was confronted with allegations in 2017 that she had hired family members without following proper process.
A year later, ANC MPs in the portfolio committee on communications called for stronger action to be taken against Muthambi for her alleged misconduct dating back to parliament’s 2016 inquiry into the SABC. The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) had presented parliament with evidence that Muthambi, who was then communications minister, shared confidential information via e-mail with Tony Gupta which allowed the Gupta family to influence government policy. However, no action was taken.
The committee also elected not to investigate Joemat-Pettersson over the scathing findings made against her by Madonsela in her report on the awarding of an R800m tender for the manning and maintenance of state-owned marine patrol vessels for a period of five years to a subsidiary of business person Iqbal Surve’s Sekunjalo Holdings.
Madonsela urged Zuma to consider taking disciplinary action against Joemat-Pettersson for her “reckless dealing with state money and services, resulting in fruitless and wasteful expenditure, loss of confidence in the fisheries industry in SA, and alleged decimation of fisheries resources in SA”.
The ethics committee in turn found that the allegations made against Joemat-Pettersson were “not in the scope of the code of conduct with regard to financial interests” applicable at the time.
Parliament came under significant fire from the Constitutional Court for failing to hold Zuma to account over the Nkandla scandal.
Two years after that ruling, there is not much to indicate that parliament is serious about ensuring that MPs accused of betraying public trust actually face the possibility of impartial investigations and effective sanctions.
And that has significant implications: not just for the accused and their accusers, but for public faith in parliament itself.
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