Lekota to be sanctioned

2003-05-30 12:08

Cape Town - The National Assembly on Friday endorsed the recommendation of the House's ethics committee to sanction Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota for failing to disclose his business interests to Parliament.

The committee has recommended Speaker Frene Ginwala issue a written reprimand to Lekota, and that he be fined one week's (seven days) salary.

This translates into a fine of about R11 500.

However, the Democratic Alliance - which on Thursday asked the Public Protector to investigate Lekota's conduct - on Friday called for him to be fired as a Cabinet minister.

"We believe the public find it very worrying that people who are here to make the rules believe they are above the rules," DA Whip Mike Ellis said.

The media and the public viewed the punishment as merely a slap on the wrist, he said.

The committee's chairperson, Luwellyn Landers of the African National Congress, said the most significant aspect of the decision was that it showed the system of ethics worked.

"Our system has proved that even our most senior members of Parliament are bound by the provisions of our code (of conduct) and can be held accountable."

'Not a court of law'

He stressed that the committee was not a court of law, nor Parliament's version of the Scorpions, and that the registrar of members' interests was not a police station.

Cassie Aucamp of the National Action agreed, saying this was the committee on ethics and "not the Gestapo".

"We must be careful of a witch-hunt, and the question of ethics must not be used for us to turn against each other," he said.

Lekota has pledged to abide by the findings of the committee, which found him negligent in making incomplete disclosures in the register of members' interests.

He had failed to disclose business interests in a fuel distribution agency and a wine cellar in the Free State, as well as residential properties in Bloemfontein and in Westville, Durban.

The defence minister, and ANC chairperson, had also not informed Parliament of him being a trustee on the Braam Fischer Board of trustees, and a member of the Grey College school governing body.

Ginwala said the sanction would apply immediately.

- SAPA