'Houdini' report causes row
2007-03-09 17:39
Cape Town - Opposition parties have vented their anger at the correctional services department's scathing attack on the National Assembly's correctional services committee for rejecting its report on Annanias Mathe's escape from Pretoria's C-Max prison.
Inkatha Freedom Party spokesperson Sybil Seaton said on Friday the department had stooped to a new low by "labelling MPs as weak political leaders and lacking sound judgement following their dismissal of the Mathe report".
In a statement on Thursday, the department said the report's rejection reflected poor judgement and weak political leadership.
Seaton said this "attack on parliament is absolutely scandalous".
The correctional services department had no right to criticise parliament.
Parliament was the highest legislative oversight body subject to the Constitution.
"A state department is subservient to parliament and has absolutely no right to criticise in this way," she said.
"Clearly the department, being part of the executive, does not understand its place in the constitutional pecking order."
Unprecedented attack
The department's scathing attack on committee chairperson Dennis Bloem of the ANC was unprecedented.
Seaton called on assembly speaker Baleka Mbete to intervene immediately by calling Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour to order, "so that we can protect the integrity of Parliament", Seaton said.
On Thursday, Democratic Alliance spokesperson James Selfe reportedly said the department was guilty of "rank bad manners and impertinence beyond description".
"For public servants to pass judgement on the work of elected parliamentarians is unprecedented in our country's history," he said.
Bloem was in a committee meeting on Friday morning and not immediately available for comment.
On Tuesday, the committee unanimously rejected the findings of the task team set up to investigate Mathe's escape from C-Max prison and called for a fresh probe.
The committee said the task team's report had failed to explain the mystery surrounding Mathe's escape.
The task team, made up of investigators from correctional services, the National Intelligence Agency and the police, could not find evidence suggesting that Mathe was actively assisted by prison officials during his escape last year.
It endorsed suggestions that Mathe could have escaped through a tiny prison window.
- SAPA