Mbete defends delay of SABC report
Speaker under fire for ‘prioritising her role as ANC chairperson’
SPEAKER Baleka Mbete has defended her decision not to table the report of the institution’s legal services that identified the people who misled the ad hoc committee that probed the affairs of the SABC.
This comes after she was sharply criticised by the official opposition for prioritising her role as ANC chairperson rather than as Speaker of the House.
DA deputy chief whip Mike Waters, who filed an application in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, yesterday suggested that the delay in tabling the report could be because it implicated senior ANC and government officials.
The report was handed to the office of Mbete by legal services about a month ago, but it has yet to be tabled in Parliament. The ad hoc committee found that, in many instances, the evidence provided by witnesses was contradictory.
It recommended that the evidence leader should analyse the testimonies and that Parliament’s legal services should make appropriate recommendations.
Parliament spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said Mbete had to write to the implicated persons, inviting them to make submissions by the end of this month on the serious allegations they faced as part of processing the report. “In terms of the powers, privileges and immunities of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act, a person who wilfully furnishes a House or committees with information, or makes a statement before it, which is false or misleading, is liable to a fine, or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years or to both the fine and imprisonment.”
Mothapo also said Mbete would pass the list of affected individuals and their submissions over to the committee after FRIDAY JULY 14 2017 the lapse of the deadline. “The Speaker is in no position to disclose the names of the affected individuals publicly before a committee process has begun.
“Any insinuation that the Speaker seeks to quash a parliamentary probe into these allegations is erroneous and without basis.”
The drama erupted after Parliament’s acting secretary, Penelope Tyawa, denied Waters access to the report despite the DA having made a PAIA application for it.
She had undertaken that the report would be made available “by the end of August or soon thereafter”.
In her letter dated July 6, Tyawa said Mbete intended to refer the report to the relevant structures of the Parliament in accordance with its rules.
Tyawa assured Waters that he would be granted access to it, pending its submission to Parliament by the end of August, or soon thereafter. She also advised him that he was at liberty to make a written submission and state why he should be granted access to the report. But Waters said the reason to deny him access was “laughable”.
“Parliament’s Legal Services Unit completed the report and submitted it to Parliament on June 5, 2017, via its representative, the National Assembly Speaker. It is now precisely the representative of Parliament, Baleka Mbete, who is protecting the persons implicated in the report by refusing to table it, which she is required to do without delay.”