Speaker Mapisa-Nqakula has said the section 194 committee might have to be abandoned as members are needed elsewhere
Suspended public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane. File picture: MOELETSI MABE.
MPs have again raised concerns about delays in concluding the work of a committee inquiring into suspended public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office.
The section 194 committee hasn’t had hearings for two months, mainly as a result of the withdrawal of state funding for Mkhwebane’s legal assistance.
The Office of the Public Protector office made funds available four weeks ago, but the hearings could not continue as new legal representation for Mkhwebane had to be appointed.
At Thursday’s meeting of the National Assembly programme committee, speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, for the second time in less than a month, criticised the delays and expressed concern about the escalating legal bill.
Mapisa-Nqakula was reacting to a report by a parliamentary official that the committee will meet on June 2 to revise its programme.
The committee was still “rearranging its programme” when it was supposed to have finished its work at the end of April and that was later extended it to the end of May.
“Now it seems as if people keep on pushing this. I want to remind all of us that as we push it further the biggest challenge we have is financial resources to fund this inquiry,” Mapisa-Nqakula said. “I don’t know any more what this committee seeks to do or to achieve by keeping on pushing this matter.”
Last month Mapisa-Nqakula requested, through Cedric Frolick, the house chair responsible for committees, that she be furnished with an update on the work of the inquiry.
“Obviously none of us want the process to collapse; at least give us a sense of where you are going. There is only R4m made available for the conclusion of this inquiry,” she said.
In May Mapisa-Nqakula warned the process might have to be abandoned if it wasn’t concluded by the end of the month due to financial constraints.
Frolick confirmed requesting the status report but said there had been no response from inquiry chair Richard Dyantyi.
He agreed the committee has gone beyond its expected timespan.
ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina agreed with the Speaker. “We cannot have a committee that is perpetually extending its mandate,” she said.
Notwithstanding the financial implications, Majodina was also concerned that MPs serving on the inquiry are needed to do other work in other committees.
“We cannot sustain this any further now as parliament and I fully agree with you that we must draw a line in the sand that we are ending here now because if we keep on, this will just collapse — and how do we account to the public that so many millions have been used and there is no outcome? We need an outcome of that,” she said.
The EFF blamed Dyantyi for the delays.
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