Parties must expel 'errant MPs'

2005-05-17 12:43

Cape Town - While parliament can chastise MPs found guilty of travel voucher fraud, only the respective parties have the power to expel them, said national assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete on Tuesday.

"There are two courses of action that need to be pursued. Parties' internal processes need to decide what to do with members who have committed offences and presiding officers need to be given a mandate to proceed forward," she said.

She was responding in a rules committee meeting to a task team report on what to do with the five serving national assembly members found guilty of misusing travel vouchers. Three more former MPs also pleaded guilty to the fraud.

Neither the Powers and Privileges Act nor the Rules of parliament made provision for any punishment greater than a public reprimand and the requirement to repay parliament's losses.

Currently MPs automatically lose their seats only when they are sentenced to more than a year's imprisonment without an option of a fine.

Parliamentary chief law advisor Eshaom Palmer said this measure was in terms of the constitution.

"This does not come into play because the sentences of the five were all below the threshold," he said.

He said according to national assembly rules, the MPs would only be eligible for a public reprimanding, chastisement by the Speaker and a fine amounting to a month's salary.

Mbete said she would go back to the joint rules committee for further discussion on the matter but said there were at present two courses of action to be pursued.

Fines 'inadequate'

She said the disciplinary committee would have to make its recommendations and provide her with a mandate to move forward and, secondly, individual parties would have to rely on their own internal processes to decide what to do with the offenders. She said she would be meeting with the disciplinary committee later this week.

Palmer concurred, stating that all real power lay with the parties themselves.

"It's up to them whether to withdraw the member from parliament or expel them," he said.

Inkatha Freedom Party chief whip Sybil Seaton and Democratic Alliance chief whip Douglas Gibson called for parties to enforce maximum penalties on those found guilty.

"We need to show the public we are serious about this," Seaton said.

Gibson said the DA felt that fining the guilty was inadequate.

"We believe that if somebody pleaded guilty to stealing the public's money then MP membership must be terminated. If parliament can't do it then the party must," he said.

He argued it was one of the benefits of proportional representation that South Africa's parliament adhered too - it gave power to the party.

"We think the solution lies in the hands of the party," he said.

- SAPA