Tlakula report a legal minefield for committee
CAPE TOWN — A special parliamentary committee yesterday found itself in a legal minefield as it began processing the public protector’s report on the findings of maladministration against Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) chairwoman Pansy Tlakula.
Late last month Public Protector Thuli Madonsela released a report on the procurement of a headquarters building for the IEC in which she found Ms Tlakula liable for maladministration and of playing a grossly irregular role in the selection of the Riverside property in Centurion. But Ms Tlakula has consistently denied any wrongdoing in the procurement of the property.
At issue here is the unprecedented situation in which an institution established under chapter nine of the constitution is being reported on by another, with a third chapter-nine institution also involved. Chapternine institutions include those entrusted with supporting democracy and human rights, such as the public protector.
At issue before the ad hoc committee dealing with the report is that the public protector has found irregularities within the IEC even after the auditor-general had given the IEC a clean bill of health on the matter of the procurement.
The ad hoc committee has been asked by resolution of the National Assembly to consider and report on Ms Madonsela’s report. This came after Ms Madonsela asked the speaker to refer her report to the Electoral Court for investigation and action by the committee, which could make a recommendation that Ms Tlakula be dismissed.
Democratic Alliance MP James Selfe said the committee needed a legal opinion on whether or not the Electoral Court was competent to handle the matter. The problem is that the lease issue occurred while Ms Tlakula was chief electoral officer. Since the Electoral Act applies to commissioners, the question now is whether the Electoral Court’s power to dismiss an official can apply to someone who became a commissioner after the fact.
Inkatha Freedom Party MP Koos van der Merwe said he was unsure of exactly what the mandate of the committee was. “Can we review the findings in the report or do we have to accept them as they are?”
“Whether or not the committee has the power to change elements of the report should be part of any legal opinion,” Mr van der Merwe said.
African National Congress (ANC) MP Andre Gaum said the legal opinion should include the jurisdiction of the Electoral Court, the mandate of the committee, and whether it could change the report.
His ANC colleague, Buti Manamela, said the responsibility of the committee had to be clarified.
Mr Manamela had earlier called for Ms Tlakula to make a submission to the committee in response to the contents of the report, and for the commissioners at the time to make a similar submission. He also asked for auditor-general Terence Nombembe to make a submission.
The issue is that the previous commission approved the leasing of a property in Menlo Park, Pretoria, but that Ms Tlakula, on returning from overseas, found that the approval was unprocedural. It was then that the IEC reversed the decision on Menlo and approved the lease on the Centurion property.
Ms Madonsela found that Ms Tlakula had a relationship with the chairman of Parliament’s finance committee, Thaba Mufamadi, and that he was a significant shareholder in the company that owned the Riverside building. She charged that Ms Tlakula had failed to declare this conflict of interest.