Ethics Committee should investigate Joemat-Pettersson
24 November 2014
The Minister of Energy, Ms Tina Joemat-Pettersson, has been caught misleading Parliament and must be investigated by Parliament's Joint Committee on Ethics and Members' Interests.
Reports indicate that the Minister was involved in recommending and appointing Mr. Tshepo Kgadima as chairman of the board of PetroSA (see BDLive article here). When I asked her about this matter in Parliament on 21 November, she flatly denied any involvement in his appointment, stating that: "The appointment of a chairman was the responsibility of the board of PetroSA's holding company, the Central Energy Fund (CEF).
She has therefore clearly misled Parliament and must be suspended in terms of the procedure to be followed during the investigation of allegations of misconduct and contempt of Parlaiment.
At the next possible sitting of the House, which might be at a special sitting this week, I will propose a substantive motion that refers the Minister to the Ethics Committee for deliberately misleading the House.
It is not difficult to see why Minister Pettersson would have wanted to conceal her involvement in Mr Kgadima's appointment. He has been accused of swindling more than 250 investors who allegedly put money into his company, LonthoCoal, bewtween 2010 and 2012 for projects that did not exist. His appointment is irrational and must be set aside.
In fact, it is highly questionable that the Minister applied her mind at all in recommending Mr Kgadima in the first place, further casting doubt over her judgement and ability to serve as a Minister as has previously been established by the myriad findings against her by the Public Protector.
Minister Joemat-Pettersson recommended four people including Kgadima to serve on the board of PetroSA. In the same letter she recommended that Brenda Madumise retain her position as interim chairwoman of PetroSA. Madumise was to remain in that position until such time that the Minister, in consultation with the CEF board had identified a potential candidate who could suitably perform the role of chairperson of the PetroSA board.
This statement specifically confirms that the Minister had a role, in consultation with the CEF, and in fact had even assumed that role in identifying the person who would ultimately chair PetroSA.
Since the Minister is the only person empowered to remove Mr Kgadima from his post, I can only hope that the Parliamentary Ethics Committee will shock Minister Pettersson into taking action in this regard. If she fails to act then Parliament must act for her.
She must remove him from office immediately, and she must face the sanctions meted out to her by Parliament for misleading it.
Statement issued by Lance Greyling MP, DA Shadow Minister of Energy, November 24 2014
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