The Chief Whip of the ANC in Parliament, Dr Mathole Motshekga, today
tabled a notice of a motion during the sitting of the National Assembly
to have Cope leader Mosioua Lekota sanctioned for misleading Parliament.

During members’ statements session in the House on 23 October 2012,
Lekota claimed that “the President’s office defied an order by the
Supreme Court of Appeals to hand over the abbreviated transcripts of the
terms that permitted criminal charges to be dropped or withdrawn against
him”. On the basis of this claim, Lekota called for “impeachment
procedures” to be instituted against the President for “defying a lawful
judicial order”.

The Supreme Court of Appeal of the Republic of South Africa issued no
such order against the President or the President’s Office. In terms of
the judgement of the Supreme Court of Appeals in the DA vs. the National
Director of Public Prosecutions case, the judicial order was directed at
the “first respondent” - which is the NPA. The order of Judge Judge
Mahomed Navsa of the SCA reads thus: “In the Rule 6(11) application the
first respondent (the NPA) is directed to produce and lodge with the
Registrar of this Court the record of the decision”. There was no order
by the Supreme Court of Appeal against the President or his office to
produce any record or documents.

By claiming in the House that the President has defied a lawful judicial
order, Lekota has lied to Parliament, which is a serious transgression
in terms of the practices, precedents and conventions governing the
business of the House. Lekota’s statement undermined the dignity of the
office of the President of the Republic for cheap party political gain.

Lekota must therefore be sanctioned for knowingly presenting false
information before Parliament.

The Chief Whip’s Motion proposed that Lekota face public condemnation by
Parliament; be instructed to unconditionally withdraw his statements and
apologise to the President; and face censure for misleading Parliament.