DA lobbies multi-party support for Ad Hoc Committee on state capture

8 June 2017

I have today distributed the DA’s draft resolution on the establishment of an Ad Hoc Committee on state capture, as per National Assembly Rule 253(1)(a), to all parties for consideration. A request for this matter to be placed on the Order Paper as a matter of urgency was forwarded to the Speaker’s Office on 29 May.

The motion will now be discussed in Chief Whips Forum with a view to having it scheduled at the next meeting of the National Assembly Programme Committee.

South Africans are punch-drunk by the seemingly endless revelations about state capture and the astonishing influence the Gupta family wields over President Jacob Zuma and members of his Executive.

I believe there is broad consensus that a thorough investigation into these allegations is long overdue and submit that Parliament is best placed to undertake it.

As detailed in our motion, Parliament is duty-bound by Section 55 of the Constitution to oversee the exercise of executive authority. As such, the various correspondence which show that there has been undue influence by persons not in the executive over the exercise of executive authority in South Africa must be laid bare and interrogated.

An Ad Hoc Committee is the perfect vehicle for looking into state capture as the committee can:

- Summon any document to be served before it;

- Summon any person to appear before it, under oath;

- Receive petitions or submissions from interested persons; and

- Conduct public hearings into any relevant matter pertaining.

This committee will be empowered to call President Zuma and the Guptas to give testimony, and should not hesitate to do so.

We call on all parties represented in Parliament to support the establishment of this Ad Hoc committee and to participate in the project of putting an end to state capture, once and for all. South Africans are looking to Parliament to tackle this crisis and we dare not fail them.

Issued by John Steenhuisen, Chief Whip of the Democratic Alliance, 8 June 2017