DA releases the letter Yunus Carrim didn’t want Finance Committee to see
In this week’s Standing Committee on Finance, the Democratic Alliance was blocked from tabling a letter by former SARS spokesperson, Adrian Lackay, addressed to the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Finance, Yunus Carrim.
The letter was intended for tabling and discussion by Committee prior to Tom Moyane’s appearance on 25 March 2015.
For reasons which are not clear, Chairperson Carrim kept completely silent on this matter, and did not bring it to the attention of the Committee – even though he had received the letter from Lackay. It is quite clear he did not want the Committee Members to see this letter, and the contents thereof.
In his letter, Lackay says that it is “in the interests of justice and ultimately in the public interest that a true version of such events are also placed before the SCOF and the JSCI and its members…[a]nd should be apprised of what I believe is at the heart of the ongoing matters at SARS”.
He states further that “I would be failing in my duty as a citizen if I did not ensure that the SCOF and JSCI and its members were completely apprised of the facts of the matter, and in that regard I am willing to make whatever evidence I have in my possession available to the SCOF and the JSCI, at request”
Lackay, who was SARS spokesperson for 11 years, revealed that under Moyane’s leadership, he was made to issue statements on behalf of SARS that were untrue, and contained false and incorrect information.
When I attempted to table this letter, along with the Sikhakhane report, in Committee yesterday, Carrim prevented the documents from being circulated, and along with fellow ANC members, avoided addressing the subject matter of either document.
In the interests of informed public opinion, I have decided to release the letter into the public domain. The letter is attached here.
While the ANC is hell-bent on playing covering-up, the DA is committed to ensuring that SARS is completely free from political meddling.
Statement issued by Dion George, DA Shadow Minister of Finance, April 23 2015
