Gigaba faces tough week after bunking
Opposition to call for his head over session skipping
HOME Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba’s disappearing act in Parliament is expected to be raised with President Cyril Ramaphosa when he comes to answer questions in the House on Wednesday.
Gigaba could be in deeper trouble with Parliament after he was allegedly spotted in Cape Town on the day he told Speaker Baleka Mbete he was “too sick” to answer questions on the naturalisation of the Guptas.
Gigaba’s spokesperson Mayihlome Tshwete yesterday denied allegations that the minister was seen around Cape Town when he was supposed to be answering questions.
He said Gigaba submitted a doctor’s certificate to Parliament in the morning.
“This whole argument that the minister was hiding somewhere is not true,” said Tshwete.
On Wednesday, opposition parties are to call for Gigaba’s head after he skipped the session this week, where he was expected to answer on the naturalisation of the Guptas, claiming he was sick.
Yesterday, Parliament’s spokesperson Moloto Mothapo would not say if there had been a response from Deputy President David Mabuza on the matter after the complaint by Mbete. “The complaints have been made by various parties in the programming committee and in the House, and that is the substance of the Speaker’s complaint to the Leader of Government Business (Mabuza),” said Mothapo.
Mothapo said no one had lodged a complaint about Gigaba being seen around Cape Town on the day he was supposed to be in the House answering questions.
But Gigaba’s troubles may not end there as opposition parties may also raise the matter directly with Mabuza when he comes to Parliament on March 20 to answer questions.
Gigaba had a rough week in which he flip-flopped on the Guptas.
Opposition parties have called for Ramaphosa to fire him after he first said the Guptas were not South Africans.
He later changed his tune and said they were South Africans.
This was also after the Electoral Commission (IEC) confirmed that Atul Gupta was registered to vote at a primary school in Saxonwold.
MPs were up in arms after Gigaba failed to show up in the House to answer.
This forced Mbete to stand down the questions Gigaba was supposed to respond to from the opposition.
The opposition had refused to be addressed by Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Fatima Chohan.
Gigaba is facing a tough week as he is expected to appear before the inquiry into state capture on Tuesday.
This was after the inquiry granted him a 10-day extension to allow him to get more information on Eskom matters.
Several witnesses had implicated him in state capture when he was still minister of public enterprises between 2009 and 2014.
The issue of the naturalisation of the Guptas has been going on for several months and MPs had first tried to get him to appear in the Home Affairs portfolio committee.
The DA complained in Parliament this week that they had unsuccessfully tried for six months to get Gigaba to answer on the naturalisation of the Guptas in the committee.