Mapisa-Nqakula should be prosecuted for flouting the law

22 May 2016

Defence and Military Veterans Minister, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has shown disregard for the rule of law embodied in the Immigration Act 13 of 2002 as well as the Executive Code of Ethics, designed to hold members of the executive accountable and to ensure that good and clean governance prevails above personal interest and self-enrichment.

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has a duty to prosecute the Minister for violating Section 49 (2) of the Immigration Act. Failing which the NPA head, Adv Shaun Abrahams, must make public the record of decision not to prosecute. 

Minister Mapisa-Nqakula, usually shrouded in scandal, has been reported to having left Waterkloof Air Force Base to the Democratic Republic of Congo to fetch 20-year-old Michelle Wege in January 2014. Wege had been detained by officials at Kinshasa International Airport 10 days prior when she tried to board a South African Airways flight to Johannesburg with a fraudulent Congolese passport that had been arranged by Mapisa-Nqakula’s sister, Nosithembele. 

Added to this, Mapisa-Nqakula used more than five officials from her office to negotiate Wege’s release into her care.  

Section 49 (2) of the Immigrations act stipulates that “Anyone who knowingly assists a person to enter or remain in, or depart from the Republic in contravention of this Act, shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine or to imprisonment not exceeding one year”.

This is also a clear flouting of Section 2 of the Executive Members’ Ethics Act [No.82 of 1998], which includes provisions prohibiting Cabinet members, Deputy Ministers and MECs from:

(ii) acting in a way that is inconsistent with their office;

(iii) exposing themselves to any situation involving the risk of a conflict between their official  responsibilities and their private interests;

(iv) using their position or any information entrusted to them, to enrich themselves or improperly  benefit any other person: and

(v) acting in a way that may compromise the credibility or integrity of their office or of the  government.

The DA will continue holding government accountable, and ensure that those elected to public office serve the needs of South Africans.  ANC government officials have for too long used the public coffers for personal enrichment. 

On 3 August 2016 South Africans have the opportunity to vote for a DA government that prioritizes all the people of the nation and not the connect few who abuse state resources for personal reasons. 

Statement issued by Kobus Marais MP, DA Shadow Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, 22 May 2016