The National Assembly on Tuesday approved the punishment of MP and former mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane — a Gupta associate — recommended by parliament’s joint committee on ethics and members’ interests.
The committee’s report dealt with Zwane’s alleged contravention of the code of ethical conduct and disclosure of members’ interests.
The committee recommended that Zwane be fined the amount equivalent to five months’ salary for the breach that he received benefits and hospitality that were not disclosed in respect of the travel from Zurich to Dubai on December 2 2015 which was paid for by the Guptas; being chauffeur-driven in Dubai at the expense of the Guptas (via the company Sahara Computer); and a two-day stay in Delhi, India, funded by the Guptas.
The committee also recommended that Zwane issue an apology in the National Assembly for the abuse of his role on the interministerial committee for the issuing of a press statement on the matter of the bank accounts of the Guptas while he was a member of the committee. The cabinet retracted the statement the next day. Additionally, he should apologise for appointing advisers who were business partners of the Guptas, namely Kuben Moodley and Malcom Mabaso.
The committee further recommended that Zwane be suspended from his seat in parliamentary debates for one parliamentary term for the breach of taking part in negotiations on the sale of the Optimum Coal Mine to the Gupta-owned Tegeta Exploration and Resources and approving the sale.
The committee’s report followed complaints made in 2017 by DA MP James Lorimer and the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse. The complaints relate to Zwane’s tenure as minister of mineral resources.
“During the time when the committee was deliberating on the two complaints, the report of the judicial commission of inquiry into allegations of state capture, corruption and fraud in the public sector including organs of state became available, also implicating him on the same matter,” parliament said in a statement.
In May 2022, National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula referred part of the report to the committee that covered the same topics as the complaints lodged by Lorimer and Outa.
Zwane is already on “step aside” in the ANC after he was charged with fraud and corruption in September in a case related to the Vrede dairy farm scandal.
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