Mbalula backs MP death probe
ANC Secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said the party welcomed the police’s decision to open an inquest into the death of MP Tina Joemat-pettersson.
Joemat-pettersson, Section 194 inquiry chairperson Richard Dyantyi, and ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina are implicated in a bribery scandal in relation a parliamentary inquiry, which is probing suspended Public Protector Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office.
Mkhwebane claims that MPS allegedly solicited a bribe from her husband, Mandla Skosana, in order to influence the outcome of the inquiry. Mbalula said Dyantyi and Majodina had both denied any involvement in the matter.
Joemat-pettersson mysteriously
died on June 5, a few days after the Daily News’s sister publication The Star broke the story about the allegation of soliciting a bribe of R600 000, and the details in connection with her death are sketchy.
This week, the police confirmed that Joemat-pettersson’s death was suspected to be unnatural, meaning the cause of death would be investigated further.
“The police are doing the right thing, which is permissible in terms of the law. So we believe as the ANC that the law should be allowed to take its course without any hindrance, and in circumstances like those of those who are educated, an inquest is opened, especially when there is death involved. So that is an important piece of work by law enforcement,” Mbalula said.
He also acknowledged that the ANC had lost significant ground in major municipalities across South Africa. The ANC had until the end of business on Wednesday to hand over its deployment committee records from 2013 to the DA after the Johannesburg
High Court dismissed its bid for an appeal last week.
Mbalula said the ANC would appeal against the court order.
“At the present moment, we defend our right to deploy as a policy of our party. Parties that win elections decide who must serve where in terms of fulfilling the manifesto implementation of that party, including the DA. They are playing politics; they are playing the law; we will exhaust the processes of the law to defend our policy. If we lose, we lose. We respect the judgment of the courts and all of that. But at the end of the day, nobody can say a governing party anywhere, including democracies that have come before us, has no right to deploy their own cadres to the front to fulfil the implementation of what the masses want according to that particular political party,” Mbalula said.
He also defended Ramaphosa’s trip to Ukraine and Russia for peacekeeping.
“We are against the war, we are against the war, we are not pro Russia in terms of this war, as others have said. There are those that say we are jeopardising the economy because we are delinquents, we are children of Russian President Vladimir Putin, we are pro Russia, and all of that.
“That’s not the case; from the onset, we said we were notwithstanding the fact that the UN Charter guides us to respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of nations we support. We said all parties to the table for dialogue and sought out their opinions and dissatisfaction with Russia with regard to Nato. This thing does not warrant nations to go to war and invade other countries; let there be talks,” Mbalula said.