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The Caucus Disciplinary Committee (CDC) on Thursday (25 March 2010)
convened an informal inquiry into the damaging media statements
attributed to the ANC Whip for the Standing Committee on Public Accounts
(Scopa), Mr Mandla Mbili, published in the Sunday Times article of 14
March 2010.
The article, published under the headline: "Ministers who flout Scopa
can be charged", contains statements credited to Mr Mbili, which made a
wide range of claims based on inexistent decisions as well as details
of confidential internal meetings of the ANC Parliamentary Caucus, in
support of the view that Ministers must account to Scopa.
Mr Mbili was invited by the CDC consistent with an undertaking made in
the media statement of the Office of the Chief Whip of 14 March, which
pointed out that he will be afforded an opportunity to confirm or
clarify the statements attributed to him in the newspaper.
The Sunday Times article in question contained two problematic comments
attributed to Mr Mbili, which the CDC found to be injurious to the image
of both the Office of the Chief Whip of the Majority Party and the
integrity of the African National Congress in Parliament. The comments
were further found to have grossly misrepresented and distorted the
position of both the Parliamentary Caucus and the Chief Whip of the ANC
on the matter of Ministers' accounting to Scopa.
The informal inquiry on this particular matter was more necessary, given
that the statements were made during the same week that the National
Executive Committee of the ANC encouraged ANC members to exercise
extreme discipline in their public or media engagements. The Caucus
media relations protocol is clear in its encouragements of whips and
chairpersons to serve as media spokespersons on matters relating to the
committees they serve. The promotion of accurate and truthful
communication is therefore a basic principle all our spokespersons are
required to uphold at all times.
Amongst the several comments captured in the Sunday Times, Mr Mbili is
alleged to have claimed that ANC Chief Whip Dr Mathole Motshekga "had
written to the Speaker, as instructed, but that some ANC members wanted
him to go further and make a public apology for his unmandated
comments".
The paper went further to attribute the following quote to him: "The
problem with this is that the chief whip made this statement as an
individual, with no mandate from the ruling party. This caused problems
because we then had to clarify this in a strategy meeting, where the
decision was taken that he should withdraw that statement. We then had
to go to caucus to clarify this issue, because it had the potential to
cause serious damage".
In his response to the issues raised by the CDC pertaining to this
article, including whether he was accurately quoted by the newspaper, Mr
Mbili confirmed that he indeed participated in the interview with Mr
Nkululeko Ncana, a journalist for the Sunday Times. However, he strongly
denied having said the specific things for which he has been paraphrased
or directly quoted. Mr Mbili further distanced himself from any other
comments included in the story attributed to unnamed MPs.
As a disciplined and loyal cadre of the movement, he emphasised that he
would not have made any pronouncement that seeks to put the ANC and its
leadership in a bad light. Accordingly, Mr Mbili offered to write a
letter to the editor of the Sunday Times formally rejecting the manner
in which his comments were misrepresented in the story.
The CDC has unanimously accepted Mr Mbili's version of the story and
accordingly expressed its regret at the gross misinterpretation of his
views as well as those of the Chief Whip on this matter.
The Office of the Chief Whip would like to take this opportunity to
stress its position on the matter of ministers' accountability to Scopa.
We wish to state categoricallyand affirmed the ANC's uncompromising support of the principle of the
executive accounting to all parliamentary committees, including Scopa.
In this regard, the Chief Whip has emphasised the fact that Ministers
are already appearing before various other parliamentary structures,
such as portfolio committees, and have whenever necessary made
themselves available to Scopa.
We have always maintained that holding the executive to account is at
the core of our activist Parliament and thus has to be executed
appropriately to ensure that concrete results are attained for the
benefit of all our people.
The role of Scopa in ensuring that departments accomplish their service
delivery targets is paramount and therefore we should be thorough in
reinforcing its role.
Contrary to media speculation, the ANC is united in its approach to
oversight and parliamentary work.