Van Rooyen and advisors should be summoned to parliament over Gupta leaks

21 November 2016

The revelations yesterday that Minister Des Van Rooyen’s current special advisors, Ian Whitley and Mohamed Bobat, leaked confidential cabinet documents to close Gupta associates while Van Rooyen was Finance Minister last year, is deeply concerning.

The DA will now write to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Mr Mzameni Mdakane, to summon Des Van Rooyen to testify under oath before Parliament that no confidential COGTA documents have been leaked by himself or any of his special advisors.

Minister Van Rooyen must be summoned to account, under oath, in terms of Section 15 of the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act, which states that “When a House or committee requires that anything be verified or otherwise ascertained by the oral examination of a witness, the person presiding at the enquiry may call upon and administer an oath to, or accept an affirmation from, any person present at the enquiry…”

The DA will also request that Mr Mdakane investigate the possibility that other confidential documents were subsequently leaked for the purpose of state capture by the Gupta’s.

Van Rooyen’s extensive involvement with the Guptas has been exposed in former Public Protector, Thuli Mandonsela’s State of Capture report. It is also believed that both Whitley and Bobat went with Van Rooyen to the Guptas’ home in Saxonwold on each of the seven days preceding his disastrous appointment as Finance Minister.

Whitley, who is ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte’s son-in-law, shared the document on December 12, just hours after receiving it, with Bobat, Gupta linked businessman, Eric Wood, and Malcolm Mabaso, a special adviser to Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane, and a former business partner to the Guptas and Duduzane Zuma.

It is of utmost importance that the propensity of these men to leak information is halted. We cannot have officials in COGTA giving out highly sensitive and possibly lucrative information seemingly to the highest bidder or for the purposes of capturing the department entrusted with it.

The DA will continue to ensure that those hell-bent on plundering state resources for the benefit of the Zuma mafia are held to account and that state funds are used for the benefit of all South Africans.

Issued by Kevin Mileham, DA Shadow Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs , 21 November 2016