Parliament's decision on Maynier

The Office of the ANC Chief Whip welcomes the decision of the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans to seek legal advice on whether the DA Member of Parliament, David Maynier, has contravened the National Conventional Arms Control Act 41 of 2002 by publicly disclosing the business of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC).

On Monday Caucus called on Parliament to investigate the legality of Maynier's action. Notwithstanding the authenticity or lack thereof of the report's contents, we believe that by making public information detailing various arms deals between our country and other states cannot be in the best interest of the country's national security (see statement).

At its special meeting today to consider the report, the Committee also expressed concern at the authenticity of the information contained in the report as well as the sources from which it was derived. This follows the DA MP's refusal to disclose or discuss the veracity of his sources and his insistence that Parliament must accept the allegations in the report as true.

The Office of the Chief Whip shares the concern of the Committee in this regard. Parliament cannot be expected to blindly follow up on allegations based on illegally obtained information, whose source(s) are mysterious.

In the past South Africa has fallen prey to faceless information peddlers and we cannot allow history to repeat itself.

Information peddlers, which may or may not be the source of information contained in Maynier's report (see here), are notorious for using specific harmless facts out of context, adding to that, dangerous lies, in the production of their documents.

Seeking legal advice on the DA MP's actions and calling on the NCACC to appear before the committee to shed light on the allegations, as per the decision of the Committee, will assist in speeding up the process and allow the law to take its course.

Statement issued by The Office of the Chief Whip of the African National Congress, Parliament of the Republic of SA, Cape Town, August 12 2009

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