POLITICS

Pieter Mulder should resign if so outraged over BAWSI funding - DA

Annette Steyn asks how FF+ leader and deputy minister can issue statements condemning actions of his own dept

BAWSI funding: Pieter Mulder must resign if outraged

The DA notes the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the leader of FF+, Pieter Mulder's condemnation of Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson's funding of the Black Association of the Wine and Spirits Industry (BAWSI) during the farm unrest in the Western Cape last year. This condemnation rings hollow from a man who by virtue of being the Deputy Minister of the department is complicit in the awarding of the funding. 

I have already written to Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, as well as the Auditor General, Terrence Nombembe, requesting that they investigate Minister Tina Joemat-Petterson's involvement in the funding of BAWSI and the issuing of food parcels during the unrest. 

If Pieter Mulder finds Minister Joemat-Pettersson's funding of BAWSI so reprehensible, he must do the right thing and resign. 

He would of course never do this, as it would mean he would have to give up the red carpet benefits he enjoys as a Cabinet Minister. 

On the one hand he issues statements criticising the Department and on the other hand, he sits in Cabinet seemingly comfortable with the decisions made by the government. 

He must stop speaking with a forked-tongue. If he has any honour left, he will do the right thing and leave the government.

Statement issued by Annette Steyn MP, DA Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries, April 29 2013

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