By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Photo: @WCProvParl / Twitter File: MPLs “drag” Western Cape speaker Masizole Mnqansela to his seat.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called on the Hawks to investigate allegations of fraud and corruption against the speaker of the Western Cape legislature, Masizole Mnqasela.
On Friday, the party gave the Hawks documents relating to subsistence, travel and entertainment allowance claims from Mnqasela.
The DA provincial caucus leader, Premier Alan Winde, has asked Mnqasela to step down amid the investigation.
“Apart from escalating the matter to the Hawks, the DA has also reported the matter to its federal legal commission for urgent investigation,” he said.
“The party will follow its internal disciplinary processes with deliberate speed to ensure accountability, while respecting “Mnqasela’s right to submit his defence in this matter.”
Hawks spokesperson Brigadier Thandi Mbambo confirmed they received the documentation from the DA.
Mnqasela is the latest senior DA politician in the Western Cape to face allegations of wrongdoing.
In February, Albert Fritz, the party’s provincial leader and community safety MEC, lost both jobs after an independent investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, alcohol abuse and grooming.
On April 2021, his predecessor as provincial leader, Bonginkosi Madikizela, resigned from the DA after claiming to have a degree he did not possess in his biography on the provincial government website.
Mnqasela was acquitted on a rape charge in 2011, when he was a DA MP for Khayelitsha. In November 2020 he contested for the provincial leadership but was defeated by Madikizela.