DA wants ministers to face the music
The DA will refer the ministers and deputy ministers who allegedly received undeclared money from Edwin Sodi, the business person whose company was awarded a controversial R255m asbestos removal project tender in the Free State, to parliament’s ethics committee. TimesLive reported on Wednesday that the Hawks arrested five of the seven alleged masterminds behind the project.
The DA will refer to parliament’s ethics committee the ministers and deputy ministers who allegedly received undeclared money from Edwin Sodi, the businessman whose company was awarded the controversial R255m asbestos removal project tender in the Free State.
DA chief whip Natasha Mazzone said on Wednesday the DA would submit a complaint to parliament ’ s joint committee on ethics and members’ interests because the ministers and deputy ministers cited by Sodi in his evidence to the Zondo commission of inquiry on Tuesday had not declared the payments in their annual declarations in the register of members’ interests as required.
On Wednesday the Hawks arrested five of the seven alleged masterminds behind the asbestos audit project in the Free State.
The R255m tender was awarded by the Free State department of human settlements to Blackhead Consulting, at which Sodi is the director, and Diamond Hill Trading.
The joint venture later subcontracted Mastertrade 232 to do the audit. Mastertrade in turn subcontracted ORI Group to do the audit and assessment for R21.3m.
Sodi told the Zondo commission that the members of the executive who received money from him were health minister Zweli Mkhize, employment & labour minister Thulas Nxesi, deputy minister of state security Zizi Kodwa and deputy minister of communications & digital technologies Pinky Kekana.
Sodi said that ministers and deputy ministers, as well as other ANC members, received multimillion-rand payments from him in 2013-2019.
Sodi, who has made substantial donations to the ANC, told the commission that from time to time ANC people approached him and asked for help in some cases when they had not been paid on time by the ANC.
He said the R6.5m payment to Mkhize was made when Mkhize was ANC treasurergeneral. Mkhize’s spokesperson
Lwazi Manzi had nothing further to add to his explanation.
With regard to Nxesi, Sodi said he paid two amounts — R30,000 and R15,000 — for the benefit of underprivileged children. Nxesi’s spokesperson Sabelo Mali said the minister had nothing to declare to parliament as he did not personally benefit from the payments.
Kodwa said he only got to know Sodi in 2015 when he was working at the ANC’s Luthuli House headquarters.
He said that Sodi’s allegations were intended to avoid responsibility for the asbestos contract.
Kekana’s spokesperson had not replied to questions at the time of publication.
Mazzone said in a statement that “the DA ran an extensive check of parliament’s register of members ’ interests for the period these payments were made”.
“None of the individuals mentioned during Sodi’s session with the commission declared such payments.
“This is a direct contravention of section 5 of parliament’s code of ethical conduct and disclosure of members’ interests regarding conflict of financial or business interests,” she said.
The code states that a member must “resolve any financial or business conflict of interest in which he or she is involved in his or her capacity as a public representative, in favour of the public interest; and always declare such interest, and where appropriate, the member should recuse himself or herself from any forum considering or deciding on the matter”.
“While there is little doubt that these members of parliament will offer all manner of excuses to explain away their dirty hands, the fact is that if their dealings with Sodi were irreproachable, they would have had no qualms declaring these payments,” Mazzone said.
“The ethics committee is duty-bound to investigate this matter and should do so urgently. And the DA expects more than a mere slap on the wrist — as is the current trend — for these perpetrators of dark deeds if SA is ever to wipe corruption completely from its slate,” she said.