The Democratic Alliance (DA) has rejected National Assembly Speaker Nosiwewe Mapisa-Nkakula’s decision to ask the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence to investigate specific allegations surrounding President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala-Phala farm robbery.
The party called for the creation of a special commission to investigate the disaster. Mapisa-Nkakula rejected this. Instead, she referred the allegations to the Intelligence Committee, one of the parliamentary committees whose work is conducted behind a veil of secrecy.
Phala Phala Farm is now the subject of many studies.
Pressure is mounting on the president to explain what really happened on his farm.
The Hawks, the Office of the Public Protector, the not-yet-formed panel of legal experts, and now the Parliamentary Intelligence Oversight Committee.
The committee will now look into the role of Deputy State Security Minister Zizi Kodwa.
ALLEGATIONS AGAINST KODWA
- He knew about the Phala Phala robbery but kept it a secret,
- He accompanied Rod to Namibia,
- Undercover operations used the Secret Crime Intelligence Fund,
- If true, these allegations are a waste of taxpayers’ money
The Speaker wants the committee to investigate allegations that Kodwa knew about the robbery but chose to keep it a state secret; that he accompanied the head of the presidential guard, Major General Wally Road, during secret communications between the authorities of South Africa and Namibia; that criminal intelligence was used in the covert operation to track down the thieves.
“The Joint Permanent Intelligence Committee is a toothless dog”
In a letter to the Intelligence Oversight Committee, Mapisa-Nkakula warned that if proven, the allegations would amount to a gross misuse of taxpayers’ money.
Parliament has defended Mapisa Nkakula’s decision to reject the DA’s request for a special committee.
“The Speaker rejected the request as she believed that some of the allegations mentioned by the DA could be dealt with by existing parliamentary bodies, including the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence. In this regard, the Speaker has referred him to the committee for investigation as part of his mandate,” said Parliamentary Spokesperson Molata Motapa.
But the prosecutor’s office is having none of it.
The party accuses Mapisa-Nkakula of cherry-picking parts of their request. It says there are multiple allegations against the president that span multiple departments and cannot be reviewed by the Joint Permanent Intelligence Committee.
“Secondly, the Permanent Intelligence Committee is a confidential committee in which the members of the committee are bound to secrecy. We believe that this move to refer parts of our inquiries to the Special Committee, the investigation into President Cyril Ramaphosa is designed to prevent the Speaker from doing its job of holding the President and his executive to account in a transparent manner. manner. So, we will be studying our next step,” says Deputy Head of Department of Health, Siviwe Gwarube.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s problems are mounting:
The United Democratic Movement (UDM) shares the same sentiments as the DA.
UDM leader Bantu Holamisa says, “The speaker is wasting our time and in the process undermining our intelligence. The Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence is a toothless dog and has no capacity or authority to investigate these serious allegations surrounding the Phala Phala saga.”
DA Asks FBI to Investigate June 21, 2022:
