Ethics Committee should investigate Joemat-Pettersson
24 November 2014
The Minister of Energy, Ms Tina Joemat-Pettersson, has been caught misleading Parliament and must be investigated by Parliament's Joint Committee on Ethics and Members' Interests.
Reports indicate that the Minister was involved in recommending and appointing Mr. Tshepo Kgadima as chairman of the board of PetroSA (see BDLive article here). When I asked her about this matter in Parliament on 21 November, she flatly denied any involvement in his appointment, stating that: "The appointment of a chairman was the responsibility of the board of PetroSA's holding company, the Central Energy Fund (CEF).
She has therefore clearly misled Parliament and must be suspended in terms of the procedure to be followed during the investigation of allegations of misconduct and contempt of Parlaiment.
At the next possible sitting of the House, which might be at a special sitting this week, I will propose a substantive motion that refers the Minister to the Ethics Committee for deliberately misleading the House.