Peters fails to interdict her one-term suspension from sittings

FORMER transport minister and ANC MP Dipuo Peters failed in her bid to interdict Parliament from suspending her from parliamentary debates, sittings, committee meetings and functions for one term.

This comes after the Western Cape High Court yesterday dismissed Peters’s urgent application to stop Parliament from implementing her suspension.

The National Assembly adopted Peters’s suspension last November when it considered the reports of the ethics committee that found several MPs guilty of breaching the code for members of Parliament.

The House approved the report against Peters despite receiving a letter from her legal representative, demanding the complaint against her not be considered.

National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said at the time there was no legal impediment to the report against Peters being considered.

Yesterday, Parliament spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said the national legislature concurred with the presiding judge’s finding that there was no valid justification for the application to be heard on an urgent basis as the member was cognisant of the committee’s conclusions and the penalties it proposed on October 26 last year, which she acknowledged receiving.

Mothapo said her intent to contest the committee’s conclusions, expressed on November 28, also confirms this awareness.

“We appreciate the court’s sentiments regarding the importance of allowing Parliament, as an arm of state, to regulate its business without interference from other arms of the state.

“Granting relief to delay the enforcement of this sanction would essentially invalidate a decision taken by a different arm of the state, exercising its constitutional oversight responsibilities, especially given its time-sensitive nature, where there is no legal foundation to do so,” he said.

Mothapo also said Peters would be placed on suspension starting today until March 28.

Peters sought the court relief after the joint committee on ethics and members’ interests found that she breached the code of ethical conduct during her stint as transport minister .

The ethics committee probed Peters after it received complaints lodged by social activist Zackie Achmat and #UniteBehind in September 2022. These consisted of findings made by the Zondo Commission and others.