Zim trip probe at an ‘advanced stage’

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s investigation into the ANC junket to Zimbabwe is at an advanced stage and it will also look at the role played by President Cyril Ramaphosa in the saga.

The public protector undertook the probe after complaints laid by AfriForum, Freedom Front Plus (FF+) and the African Transformation Movement (ATM). Mkhwebane’s spokesperson Oupa Segalwe confirmed that the probe was underway. “The investigation is in full swing. It will focus on allegations as contained in the three complainants.

AfriForum, FF+ and African Transformation Movement lodged the complaints,” Segalwe said.

The Citizen has copies of the complaints from the ATM and AfriForum. If the letter written to Mkhwebane by ATM president Vuyo Zungula is anything to go by, it would be difficult for Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to escape the noose of accountability.

Zungula asked for a deeper investigation into maladministration in the presidency and Mapisa-Nqakula’s office. He listed the finest details of the minister’s itinerary on her visit to Zimbabwe and questioned whether she first obtained authorisation from Ramaphosa and the minister of finance for the trip.

Mkhwebane must also investigate whether Ramaphosa was derelict in his duty as the commander in chief of the defence force to knowingly allow the delegation of his political party to use state assets for “narrow political party purposes”. Zungula was concerned about a likelihood that the president had breached of the constitution.

In terms of Chapter 6 of the ministerial handbook on international travel, ministers and deputy ministers should get prior approval from the president for such trips and official visits abroad at least two weeks prior to departure. In the case of a minister, this should be accompanied by a request for the appointment of an acting minister.

“Can President Ramaphosa confirm that he indeed received the request for approval? Did he approve such a request? If so, why is he requiring a report as if the trip was not sanctioned by him?” Zungula said.

He asked for the minister to provide a paper trail for her Zimbabwe trip and the written correspondence between her office and her Zimbabwean counterpart about the visit. A full itinerary from the time she landed in Harare on 9 September must be provided. Zungula questioned if the ministerial handbook chapter 7 clause 1.6 on the use of noncommercial travel was complied with.

The clause required that “all applications for the provision of air transport by the South African Air Force must be made to the secretary of defence, in advance. AfriForum lawyer Willie Spies, believed that section 80(3) of the Defence Act, 42 of 2002 had been violated.

The section provided that the minister (only after consultation with the minister of finance) may authorise the conveyance of any person who is not an officer or employee of the state by means of any vehicle, aircraft or vessel belonging to the department of defence.

He said the ANC delegation were not state officials or employees and therefore the Act had been breached.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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