MPs gun for elusive MEC
Seeking subpoena after no-show
THE North West MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development, Manketse Tlhape, is in hot water with Parliament after failing to appear at a meeting to explain her decision to donate more than R100 million worth of animals including buffaloes, rhinos and sable antelopes to a private company.
Chairperson of the portfolio committee on environmental affairs, Philemon Mapulane, confirmed yesterday that the body intended to subpoena Tlhape.
The laws and rules of Parliament allow the National Assembly to subpoena officials, ministers and MECs.
Mapulane said the committee would request Speaker Baleka Mbete to sign off on the subpoena for the MEC to come and explain the reasons for donating the animals to an unknown private company.
Mapulane would not say if Tlhape had links to the company or individuals in that company, but said the committee was angry that the MEC failed to show this week or give reasons for not doing so.
Tlhape’s department donated the 150 buffaloes, 50 rhinos and 50 sable antelopes last year.
There were no reasons given by the MEC for the donation.
“We don’t have the details to whom the animals were donated, but there is a company there and the MEC must tell us who constitutes that company,” said Mapulane.
He said they did not have the details of the individuals who were given the animals.
“It’s a lot of money we are talking about here – more than R100m donated to a company,” he said.
The committee will now follow the process of subpoenaing the MEC, but no date has been fixed for the hearing. Mapulane said the members of the committee were angry as Tlhape hadn’t offered any reasons for not appearing.
There was not even an apology made for her no-show.
“We will subpoena her and the department to come to Parliament and explain.
“For me this was a simple thing when it started, that they were going to say this is what has happened and there was this donation,” he said.
However, the committee is angry that its simple questions have not been answered by Tlhape, and it will now issue subpoenas to her to give reasons.
Mapulane said Tlhape had been given a month’s notice to make her appearance in Parliament.
The committee has decided that the only way to get the information it wants is to subpoena Tlhape.
Spokesperson for the North West Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Tsholofelo Dintwe did not reply to questions sent to her about the matter by the time of going to press.