DURBAN - National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has taken exception to Chief Justice Raymond Zondo’s remarks that there could be another state capture project looming, saying that Parliament’s presiding officers were shocked by Zondo’s views as he had never raised such concerns with Parliament.
Parliament came in for criticism from Zondo, who presided over the State Capture Commission, saying that parliamentary systems were not strong enough to avert another state capture project if another group of people with the intentions of emptying state coffers and making decisions on running the country emerged.
Last week, the presiding officers of both houses of Parliament said that they were making headway in the implementation of the recommendations of the state capture report, almost a year after the various instalments of the report were handed over to President Cyril Ramaphosa.
A meeting was held between the commission’s chairperson Chief Justice Raymond Zondo and Parliament’s presiding officers, Nosiviwe Mapisa Nqakula as Speaker of the National Assembly and Amos Masondo, to clear the air following criticism of Parliament’s lacklustre approach to implementing the recommendations.
Zondo, speaking at an event by the Human Sciences Research Council a year on from the release of the state capture reports to President Cyril Ramaphosa, said that there were still more prospects of state capture as there had been no changes made to protect the country from a re-occurrence.
Speaker Mapisa Nqakula said that they had been shocked by Zondo’s comments as there had not been any prior consultation on what would come out of the lecture Zondo delivered at the Human Sciences Research Council.
“Of course Parliament is subjected to public scrutiny all the time, however the one reason that we decided that we should have an engagement with the CJ is that there’s a difference between what you write and say and what any other South African says about Parliament.
“But it is something else when a head of an army of the state, that institution the judiciary raises a matter in the public arena about another arm of the state.
“It’s not so much that as Parliament we are beyond reproach, we do not want criticism, no no… It is about a head of the judiciary, a Chief Justice of the republic takes the floor, raises issues that he has never raised with the presiding officers of Parliament,” Mapisa-Nqakula said.
She called for collaboration between the various arms of the state because lack of collaboration created an impression to the public that the arms of the state were not communicating efficiently or undermining each other.
“When that statement came out, we did not respond, deliberately so, because it can’t be us who in a public domain, in the streets responding to any matter raised by the chief justice. We had a quick consultation and we said we are not going to respond to this.”
National Council of Provinces chairperson Masondo said the spirit of their meeting with the chief justice was not for him to apologise to Parliament for his remarks, but to discuss issues and move in a direction of finding solutions.
The progress report on the implementation of the report said that at least six members of Parliament that were implicated during the commission’s proceedings had been to the Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests.
“An additional six were also referred to the committee by an external entity, named ‘United Behind’. To date, the committee has found against three MPs, cleared five while two are still under consideration.
“At least two MPs have since resigned from Parliament, and therefore fall outside of the scope of the application of the ethics code. The committee will give a comprehensive report of this work in line with quarterly reporting arrangements,” the progress report said.
Another key recommendation of the commission’s report was reformation of the Party Funding Act.
Parliament’s progress report on the implementation of the recommendations indicated that this was being reviewed in the wake of the Electoral Amendment Act of 2023.
“Section 10 of the current act already makes it an offence to receive or give a donation for any reason other than party political reasons. Additionally, Section 8 makes it an offence to receive a donation from a prohibited source.
“Furthermore, Parliament has taken note of the commission’s recommendation to consider passing electoral reforms enabling a constituency-based electoral system alongside the existing proportional representative system,” the report said.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE