Parliament must answer urgent questions on the circumstances surrounding Zukisa Faku’s resignation
10 July 2019
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has noted the resignation of ANC MP Zukisa Faku, former mayor of Buffalo City Metro, from Parliament earlier this week.
The DA will today be writing to the Secretary of Parliament to determine what the exact circumstances are that surround Ms Faku’s election and subsequent resignation as Member of Parliament.
Should it turn out that Ms Faku was never eligible for election, Parliament should conduct an urgent review to establish where and how their internal vetting systems failed to pick this up. Parliament would then also be obligated to recover the money and benefits Ms Faku received while masquerading as a lawful Member of Parliament.
In order to be elected, Ms Faku had to sign a nomination acceptance form from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in which she was required to declare that she is not disqualified from standing for the elections in terms of any applicable legislation. If she was in fact not eligible for election at the time she signed this form, she fraudulently misrepresented her status and more serious consequences should follow.