The internal ructions consuming the governing ANC and the DA, the country’s main opposition, are likely to continue to dominate headlines this week. The state capture commission, where the role of parliament is coming under scrutiny, will also be closely watched.
On Monday, parliament’s presiding officers, National Assembly speaker Thandi Modise and National Council of Provinces chair Amos Masondo, will present the legislature’s perspective on the state capture project.
“Their appearance before the commission provides an opportunity for parliament to articulate its oversight mandate and role as well as clarify the many questions asked by the public on how corruption incidents and excesses could have happened under its watch,” parliament said in a statement.
The state capture commission has catapulted corruption to the fore in SA amid revelations of grand-scale looting of parastatals. The commission, headed by deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo, has heard evidence from witnesses placing former president Jacob Zuma at the heart of state capture.
But Zuma, who established the commission in 2018, is digging in his heels and refuses to appear before it.
Meanwhile, reports emerged on Sunday that the commission’s offices in Parktown, Johannesburg were broken into on Saturday, and various items were stolen including laptops. It’s unclear how this will affect the hearings.
This week, ANC and DA infighting will be under the spotlight. There are disagreements within the ANC about the party’s resolution that leaders and members charged with corruption and wrongdoing, including secretary-general Ace Magashule, have 30 days to voluntarily step aside or be suspended. This means Magashule, who is facing corruption charges, will have to step aside by the end of April, but he is not going down without a fight. He faces 21 charges of corruption and fraud and theft and money laundering in a case linked to a doomed R255m asbestos contract signed when he was Free State premier. Magashule has previously said that only branches of the ANC can remove him at a special conference.
The DA has been embroiled in an internal “qualifications” scandal ostensibly driven by the race for the Cape Town mayor position. The party’s chief whip in the National Assembly, Natasha Mazzone, has also been accused of misrepresenting her qualifications.
Last week it emerged that the DA Western Cape leader and provincial transport MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela, who has set his sights on becoming the next Cape Town mayor, does not hold a BCom degree as previously claimed. He has since been suspended from his position in the party as well as in the provincial government pending an internal probe. The scandal could rule him out of the mayoral race, which includes incumbent Dan Plato and MP Geordin Hill-Lewis, who is the party’s finance spokesperson. Hill-Lewis is said to be the front-runner at this stage.
The issue has inevitably taken a race angle.
Madikizela, who has admitted to not disclosing the correct information on his CV, has suggested that there is a campaign led by a certain clique within the party to drive him out because he refuses to be “controlled”. He also raised the issue of double standards.
This is amid calls for the party to take action against Mazzone after former DA member and Good party secretary-general Brett Herron released a statement on Friday claiming that she too had misrepresented her qualifications.
“Her updated Wikipedia biography listed two universities as her alma maters, but her highest academic qualification as matric. Her profession was altered from ‘advocate’ to ‘none’,” Herron said. Mazzone rubbished the claims, saying it was well known that she only had a matric and she never completed her degree. She also pointed out that anyone can change a Wikipedia biography.
In parliament on Tuesday, mineral resources & energy minister Gwede Mantashe will brief the portfolio committee on the preferred bidders for emergency power procurement as SA battles to alleviate the energy crisis. He is also due to discuss the Karpowership contract to supply power from vessels when eventually anchored at three coastal sites. This contract, which is said to be for 20 years, has been flagged by several observers as problematic as power ships are usually deployed as a short-term emergency solution.
The portfolio committee on employment and labour will hear presentations from stakeholders on the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Amendment (COIDA) Bill. It provides for the inclusion of domestic workers as employees qualifying for benefits under the act and for the improvement of compensation benefits for employees in general.
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