PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa will not be called by Parliament’s finance watchdog to answer questions on comments he made on alleged misuse of public funds for ANC’s internal party political purposes.
The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) took the decision when the matter was put to a vote, on Wednesday night.
This after the committee members were asked whether Ramaphosa should be invited to appear before the committee to make oral presentation and answer issues emanating from the leaked ANC NEC meeting recording and correspondence to questions sent to him in writing.
Six ANC MPs voted that he should not be invited while four opposition parliamentarians were insisting on his appearance.
Scopa chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa said the committee had not agreed to the question.
“The majority has resolved that the president will not be invited to appear before the committee to answer on the allegations on misuse of funds for political parties on the basis of the audio recording and the responses he provided,” Hlengwa said.
The drama came up during the discussion after the parliamentary legal services gave the committee legal opinion in the wake of Ramaphosa’s response to questions posed by the committee.
Parliamentary legal advisor Fatima Ebrahim said the president confirmed the recording was for an ANC meeting held in March.
Ebrahim said the essence of his response was that he did not have any direct or specific information of misuse of public funds for party political purposes other than that which was in the public domain arising from the Zondo Commission and other rumours.
“The president’s statement does not deny that the public funds may have been used for party political purposes,” she said.
Ebrahim said they had looked at the Zondo Commission report, which dealt with aspects of party political funding and testimonies during its hearings where witnesses made reference to State Security Agency’s funds used to influence decisions.
“We also noted that there were other persons that testified and made references to matters of SSA (State Security Agency). These witnesses did not speak on party funding but financial mismanagement in the SSA.”
Ebrahim said there was basis to engage with the witnesses to zoom in on the financial mismanagement and also consider the upcoming third instalment of the Zondo Commission report as well as engage the Office of the Auditor-General on its challenges in auditing SSA funds, among others.
“We are of the view that there is no reason why Scopa can’t have a closed meeting to consider these issues,” she said.
Ebrahim said while Ramaphosa did not provide concrete evidence of alleged misuse of public funds for party political purposes, it appeared there was sufficient information in respect of SSA to warrant further consideration by Scopa.
DA MP Alf Lees said it was disappointing that Ramaphosa has not addressed their particular aspects of their questions and pointed them to the direction of SSA.
“It would appear to be some form of obfuscation and redirect us away from the main issue. I remain concerned that the president has not taken our request for information serious enough,” Lees said.
“We now need to consider asking the president to come talk to us and answer direct questions from us.” he said.
EFF MP Ntombovuyo Mente said Ramaphosa’s responses were “nothing short of mocking us”.
She said he treated them like children as if they were people who have nothing to do but pursue useless venture of asking questions.
She said the president should be called to answer their questions, and be summoned if he refused to come.
ATM’s Thandiswa Marawu said Ramaphosa’s responses were underwhelming and denial of what he says in the leaked recording.
“The president is not convincing at all. The best approach is to call him so that we can interact with him directly,” Marawu said.
ANC MPs would hear none of that, saying the committee should follow the advice of the parliamentary legal services on taking the matter forward and wait for the third instalment of the Zondo commission report.
“We will still have time to reflect on the steps to take forward,” ANC MP Sakhumzi Somyo said.
His sentiments were echoed by his party’s colleagues but the opposition disagreed.
While Hlengwa said it would be beneficial for the committee to interact with Ramaphosa, he could not get the committee members to find each on the due process to be followed.
When the opposition insisted that Ramaphosa appear before the committee, the ANC MPs asked that the matter be put to a vote and won.
“We are in support of what is proposed in the legal opinion. Anything other than that we will have to vote for it,” said ANC MP Bheki Hadebe.
When the voting was concluded, Mente said the EFF would “explore other avenues in dealing with this matter of a person shielded from accountability by the majority”.
Hlengwa said the secretariat and legal advisers would put together a framework on how the matter could be concluded and dealt with all other matters.
POLITICAL BUREAU
