Leaker of confidential information has DA membership terminated

16 October 2020

Today the Democratic Alliance (DA) membership of a confirmed leaker of confidential information and strategy has been terminated, after a three year long legal process finding her guilty, and an appeal confirming her guilt.

Ms Nkele Molapo’s guilt has been tried by a fair process of the DA Federal Legal Commission, and after she appealed, her guilt was confirmed by an Appeal Panel of the Federal Legal Commission. The sanction imposed upon Ms Molapo is the immediate termination of her Party membership, against which there are now no possible further internal appeals.

This brings to a close a three-year process to seek accountability for acts Ms Molapo committed in 2017, leaking confidential information from the DA Tshwane Government to our opponents, the Economic Freedom Fighters. At the time, with evidence of this leaking presented to then Mayor of Tshwane, Solly Msimanga, a case against Ms. Molapo was opened by Msimanga with the DA Federal Legal Commission. Today Solly Msimanga is vindicated for doing what was right at the time, in taking action against a DA colleague.

The finding of the Federal Legal Commission includes: "It is very clear that the Panel a quo weighed the evidence before them carefully. On the one hand, the evidence led by witnesses for the Party corroborated each other. Msimanga handed his phone to the Panel a quo so that the messages could be inspected by them. There were logical explanations and timelines given by the Party and again these explanations and timelines could mostly be corroborated by one or more witnesses.

In contrast to the case presented by the Party, the Appellant denied the allegations by offering ostensibly only one defence-the fact that she was framed. This she did without giving any reasoning why this could have been the case, nor why she would be the target of such a plot nor who the mastermind would have been behind such a plot against her.

It is the view of the Appeal Panel that, on a balance of probabilities and in the absence of any substantive explanations provided by the Appellant, the Panel a quo had no choice but to find that the only logical and probable course of events are those presented by the Party".

This ruling of the Appeal Panel comes at a time when Ms. Molapo has publicly leveled suspiciously-timed allegations against Solly Msimanga. Mr. Msimanga outrightly denies these allegations, and sees it as an effort by Ms Molapo to smear his name in pre-emption of today’s serious finding against her, and the termination of her DA membership.

It is sadly becoming an all too frequent practice for those found guilty in internal DA disciplinary processes to rapidly turn on the party to create counter-allegations to muddy the waters of their guilt. It is a practice we strongly denounce, and we continue to appeal to those found guilty to accept their outcomes without seeking to damage the party in retribution.

The fact is that a three-person panel of the DA Federal Legal Commission reviewed the evidence in this matter including messages Ms. Molapo had directly sent to senior EFF leaders, and the panel heard all parties fairly before unanimously finding Ms. Molapo guilty of leaking and exposing DA political strategy in Tshwane to the EFF.

Upon her appeal of this finding, an Appeal Panel of five persons heard the appeal and subsequently confirmed the finding of guilt. The evidence was crystal clear; messages and screen shots of messages sent and received were presented to the FLC, and they made for a water-tight case.

The leaking of confidential DA information and political strategy to the EFF was the cause of great instability in our caucus, government and the City of Tshwane. Ms. Molapo bears the blame for handing the EFF some tactical political advantages which compromised our work.

After these leaks, the North Gauteng High Court found in its judgment on the instability in Tshwane that the EFF and ANC being able to break quorum at key moments was to blame for the work of council stalling. This tactic of breaking quorum was based on EFF knowledge of the DA’s own political strategies.

I am very pleased with the outcome in this case. The DA does not tolerate leakers, who do so to destabilise us and undermine our work and our efforts to bring change to South Africa. The DA stands firm that accountability for such transgressions must be enforced. The DA is the only party in South Africa to robustly enforce accountability internally.

With immediate effect, Ms Nkele Molapo is no longer a DA Member, and thus she vacates her seat in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature too.

We say goodbye to Ms. Molapo today as she embarks on whatever other path she chooses to now take in life.

Issued by Mike Moriarty, DA Gauteng Provincial Chairperson, 16 October 2020