ANC condemns the DA's abuse of legislature mechanisms for party political point scoring

The ANC condemns the DA's blatant abuse of the legislature and its democratic processes for party political point scoring reminiscent of a kangaroo court.

ANC Western Cape leader Marius Fransman and Western Cape legislature ANC chief whip Pierre Uys today attended a meeting of the standing committee on public accounts and pointed out various procedural flaws and failures in how this committee erred in calling the two to be questioned about things when they were MEC's.

On 17 March 2014 the two were invited to come freely to the committee at 9 am the morning, but without giving any notice of a change of the starting time, the committee commenced at 8 am, claimed they failed to come and by 8.30 am resolved to subpoena the two to appear - thirty minutes before they were due to be there!

Thereafter a comedy of errors followed including wrong dates on the subpoenas, questionable wording and procedural shortcomings. One of the biggest errors is that the DA component wants to unduly shift the blame for operational and administrative problems onto the ANC members, while the law (PMFA - the public finance management act) clearly states that politicians are not allowed to be part of procurement or financial matters. The accounting officers are the relevant people to clear any queries.

After taking legal advice, Fransman and Uys came to the committee this morning. Fransman was denied any turn to put his case. Uys stated that the two needed to have the questions of the committee in writing to prepare proper responses since the scope of the questions may span a decade ago. They do not have ready access to officials or the stacks of documents referred to by the committee.

Uys asked for a postponement for proper preparation. This was denied by die DA, although other parties agreed it would be unfair not to give them time for this.

The DA bulldozed its insistence to start without preparation for the two, using its majority in the committee. The two asked to be excused, which was granted by the chair, ACDP member Grant Haskin.

After the fact, the DA is now making all kinds of false allegations, using its usual lies, spin, smoke and mirrors to obfuscate the issues and cover up its own problems with major mistakes that rendered the process flawed. False accusations and lying to the public, does not help the DA's void claims and processes.

The ANC says the DA is hell-bent on following a flawed political agenda, to unduly attack the integrity of Fransman and Uys, conducting a cheap party political witch-hunt and a fishing expedition with political intent that leads nowhere or desperately bullying their opponents in the light of its plunging support ahead of the upcoming election. The people of the Cape are turning their backs on the DA and no grandstanding will assist it to make up for its losses.

The ANC takes the matter seriously, will seek further legal opinion and a possible review.

The ANC is also looking forward to expose the DA's abuses, its cover-ups and deal with the detail after the election.

Statement issued by the ANC Western Cape, April 23 2014

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter