The ANC's move to remove David Maynier MP from the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans is an attempt to intimidate him into stopping his enquiry into South Africa's dodgy arms deals with some of the most repressive regimes in the world (see statement).

The ANC are trying to throw Maynier off the portfolio committee because he is doing his job overseeing and scrutinising the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC). The more revelations there are about the dodgy arms deals, the harder the ANC appears to try and remove Maynier from the portfolio committee.

The fact is that members of portfolio committees are appointed by political parties, and therefore Maynier will continue to serve on the portfolio committee where we expect him to continue to ask the hard questions and get to the bottom of the dodgy arms deals.

Statement issued by Ian Davidson, MP, Democratic Alliance chief whip, September 2 2009

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