Suspended ANC MP demands reinstatement

Suspended ANC MP Mervyn Dirks wants to be reinstated to his positions in parliament, saying his suspension was illegal.

Dirks has written to ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina demanding reinstatement as ANC whip in the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) and as the questions whip of the ANC parliamentary caucus. His membership of the party’s strategy committee was also suspended and his Scopa membership withdrawn.

He was prohibited from engaging on any media platform “in any way whatsoever regarding this matter ” . Dirks is a branch delegate to the ANC national conference in December. He fears his suspension may be used to bar him from attending, his lawyers said.

In a letter to Majodina, he said his suspension was illegal and unconstitutional. Dirks said that when Majodina suspended him, she mentioned her intention to bring disciplinary charges against him within seven days for bringing the ANC into disrepute. This has not happened, he said. “I have waited ever since for your office to put these charges to me, which you have failed to do.”

Majodina suspended Dirks in January over his call for President Cyril Ramaphosa to account in parliament for utterances he made in a leaked audio clip about the misuse of public funds for internal party leadership campaigns in 2017.

He ignored her instruction to withdraw a letter he had written to Scopa chair Mkhuleko Hlengwa in which he asked that Ramaphosa tell the committee what he knew about the misuse of public funds for party political activities.

Dirks gave Majodina until November 25 to reinstate him or he will approach the high court for relief. His lawyers, Gardee Godrich Attorneys, have written to the ANC’s lawyers making similar demands. They challenge Majodina’s competence to issue the notice suspending Dirks on and the intention to bring disciplinary charges against him.

They also note that the intended disciplinary process, stated in the notice, had not been pursued. Instead, on September 1, Dirks received a charge sheet and was summonsed to appear before the ANC’s national disciplinary committee on September 18 in relation to charges set out in the charge sheet.

TWEETS

The charges related to two tweets the ANC viewed as an attack on Ramaphosa and for allegedly leaking an audio recording of an ANC national executive committee meeting.

Dirks appeared with his legal representative, former ANC treasurer-general Matthews Phosa, but the matter was postponed for the purpose of hosting a pre-hearing conference.

“We are instructed that since his appearance before the national disciplinary committee our client has not received any further communication from the ANC.”

The lawyers say the failure to take the processes forward has legal consequences. One is that Dirks’ temporary suspension has lapsed because the ANC constitution and its binding disciplinary provisions state that “temporary suspension shall lapse if a notice of a charge relating to such suspension is not delivered to the member within 30 days from the date of commencement of the temporary suspension”.

They said Dirks has yet to receive a charge relating to that suspension. “We have treated the charge sheet of September 1 as a separate disciplinary process to that contemplated in the notice dated January 20.”

Citing the ANC’s constitution, they said the charge sheet should have been delivered within six months of the date of the party finding out about Dirks’ alleged misconduct.