Strategic Fuel Fund Investigation: DA Calls For Minister’s Suspension
28 July 2016
The decision today by the Minister of Energy, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, to investigate rogue activities of the Strategical Fuel Fund (SFF) - in part for the complete sale of South Africa’s strategic fuel stocks in December 2015 – is nothing more than an attempt by the Minister to distract from her own incompetence and cover up the blatant mismanagement at the Department of Energy.
Of further concern is the very flawed nature of the proposed investigation.
The SFF are being investigated for activities flowing directly from a Ministerial directive. This would suggest that the directive itself will be subject to investigation and as such so too the Minister. It is therefore untenable that the Minister should retain her position while such an investigation is undertaken.
As such, I will today be writing to the President of the Republic, urging him to suspend Minister Joemat-Pettersson until an investigation conclusively exonerates the Minister of any wrong doing.