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The Premier of the Free State, Sefora Ntombela, has indicated that she has interdicted the implementation of recommendations of a Public Protector Report and will taking it under judicial review.

In a report on the alleged violation of the Ethics Code by Mr Ace Magashule for failure to reply honestly and adequately to questions posed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Free State Legislature, the Public Protector (PP), Busisiwe Mkhwebane, cleared Mr Magashule of wrongdoing. However, on a similar complaint the PP indicated in the same report that the MEC for Police, Roads and Transport and Free State Chairperson of the ANC, Sam Mashinini, violated the Constitution as well as the Executive Ethics Code for Members of the Executive Council.

In reply to a question by the DA in the Free State Legislature, the Premier indicated that she has obtained an interdict against the implementation of the recommendations of the PP report and is taking the findings under judicial review.

The Premier was allocated 14 days by the PP to “…submit a copy of the report and any comments thereon, together with a report on any remedial action taken or to be taken in regard thereto, to the provincial legislature”.

The PP further indicated that: “The Free State Legislature Committee on Ethics and Members’ interests must apprise me of the steps taken against Mr Mashinini for breaching the Code of Conduct and Ethics for Members of the Free State Legislature”.

All remedial action must be finalised within six months from the date of the report.

The DA has requested the Premier to supply details of the aspects of the remedial action that will be taken under judicial review and on what basis the interdict was granted. It will be interesting to see whether the PP will defend this review application against her findings in a similar manner as the DA's Vrede Dairy Project report review application that she lost along with all attempts to appeal the judgement.

The Premier will not defend the Legislature's constitutional mandate to hold the provincial government accountable and will not take action against her political head in the province as indicated in the report. This is why many Premiers in the Free State have been and are puppet administrators who remain hamstrung by their political puppet masters in the ANC at provincial and national levels.

While the review application remains between the Premier and the PP, the DA is hopeful that the courts will rule in favour of the Legislature's constitutional obligations to ensure oversight and accountability by ensuring opposition parties' rights to pose questions to the Executive and receive adequate and well researched replies.

Issued by DA