By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The African National Congress (ANC) MPs has blocked Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) from calling President Cyril Ramaphosa to explain his remarks that the party had misused public funds.
The ANC wants to wait for the release of the third part of the state of the capture report, which will be released by end of this month and then decide on a way forward.
ANC MPs forced a vote in the committee, which usually seeks a consensus, and used its majority to shoot down the suggestion to call Ramaphosa. All ANC MPs in the committee voted against it, and all the opposition MPs, from the DA, EFF and ATM, voted in favour.
The saga started in December when a leaked recording of Ramaphosa, speaking at an ANC NEC meeting in March 2021, made it into the public domain.
In the leaked recording, Ramaphosa can be heard saying: “Investigations will reveal that a lot of public money was used (to fund political campaigns). I said, in this case, I am prepared to fall on the sword, so that the CR17 campaign, yes, should be the only one that’s looked at and not the others because the image of the African National Congress is what I am most concerned about.”
ANC MP Mervyn Dirks asked Scopa to investigate late last year. The party has since suspended him after he refused to withdraw his request.
Last month, Scopa asked Ramaphosa to respond in writing, which he did.
Ramaphosa said he had relied on public information for his comment. “I do not have any direct and specific information on the alleged misuse of public funds for party political purposes,” he said.
His response did not satisfy opposition MPs.
The committee chair, IFP MP Mkhuleko Hlengwa, said it would be beneficial for the committee to interact with Ramaphosa.
“In this case, I see the president as a whistleblower, and a discussion is necessary,” he said. He tried to broker a consensus, but it soon became apparent that neither the ANC nor the opposition parties would budge.
Ramaphosa is on his way to Brussels in Belgium this evening, where he will be participating in the 6th African Union-European Union (AU-EU) Summit on 17 and 18 February 2022.
Meanwhile National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has declined the African Transformation Movement’s (ATM) request for a secret ballot for its motion of no confidence against Ramaphosa.
The ATM wrote a letter last Friday, requesting Mapisa-Nqakula to reconsider its request following a Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruling in December last year.
The SCA had set aside the previous decision of the Speaker to decline the request for a secret ballot on the proposed motion of no confidence due to the process followed in arriving at a decision.
The SCA ruled in the ATM’s favour and found former Speaker Thandi Modise had misinterpreted her discretionary powers.
Mapisa-Nqakula had considered the latest correspondence and the issues raised in the ATM’s letters, dated 7 December 2021 and 11 February 2022.
Parliament said in a statement the Speaker had considered several factors, among them the contestation among candidates leading up to the electoral conference of the ruling party in December. It added Mapisa-Nqakula found nothing that suggested violence or any other threat prevailed at this time in respect of any of these circumstances, beyond what were normal tensions in a democracy.
Parliament said she was satisfied these factors did not lead her to conclude openness and transparency should not prevail, as they were, in her view, events that did not point to a toxic and highly charged atmosphere, but rather events that could only take place if all systems were generally functioning within a constitutional democracy.
Mapisa-Nqakula stressed no political environment would be entirely free of political tensions between or within parties.
Parliament also confirmed the receipt of vote of no confidence tabled by the Democratic Alliance in the executive, excluding the President, proposed by the leader of the official opposition.