Probe pins nothing on me

The comments by Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba and the DA’s Mike Moriarty, contained in your article on my resignation from the party, reminded me of what I once overheard when two people were discussing the settlement of a dispute. (Joburg former finance official Dagada quits the DA, threatens to sue Mashaba, July 19).

One asked the other why he was so adamant about his point of view, to which he replied with such an original answer that I have remembered it ever since and have made it my motto. He said: “If I do not defend my integrity, people might think I do not have any.”

I want to reiterate that the forensic probe report does not contain findings that support any of the accusations made by the executive mayor against me. There are also no findings that assert that I acted favourably towards individuals, officials or service providers closely associated with me, as claimed by Mashaba.

The DA and Mashaba have been doing everything possible to ensure that I do not appear before the Johannesburg council ethics committee, which on April 11 took the decision to refer my matter for investigation by the integrity commissioner. But the file only reached the commissioner on June 14 after I persistently pushed for this. According to the letter sent to my lawyers by the chairman of the DA’s federal executive, James Selfe, the party was hesitant that I should appear before the ethics committee because it didn’t have sufficient numbers to win a vote against me.

Any DA member who trusts the party’s federal legal commission and its panels would be very naïve. The decisions of these structures and the so-called independent legal opinions are rubber stamps of Selfe’s positions. My continued stay in the DA had become very toxic and led to my huge legal expenses.

Dr Rabelani Dagada Via e-mail