DA NW calls for action after Premier allegedly misled the public under oath

1 October 2019

This press briefing follows the recent oral question and answer session with Premier Job Mokgoro during a plenary sitting in the North West Provincial Legislature and we wish to examine his response.

During this session, we asked the Premier if he has any business interests and also to list such in the event of any. He referred us to the register on members’ interests and confidently confirmed that all his interests are indeed declared.

We accepted his open invitation to peruse the declaration and found only two companies listed – Nonontsha and Mokgone, which are in the process of being deregistered. His declaration is annexed as Annexure “A”.

After doing our own company search (Annexure “B”), however, we found that another company, called JFKS Consulting, has not been declared despite it being in business since 2011. The Premier is listed as an active director of this company and we want to know the dealings between this company and any government departments.

To this end, we will specifically request the Public Protector to look into the business that this company is doing and with whom.

In terms of the Executive Members’ Ethics Act, the Premier is required to disclose all his financial interests when assuming office, as well asany financial interests acquired after his assumption of office.

He is further required to abide by the Code of Ethics as prescribed by the Standing Rules of the North West Provincial Legislature, which stipulates that Members are to declare their interests.

Since his assumption of office last year June, however, he has declared only the two companies mentioned earlier. This is in contravention of the above stated Rules and warrants the necessary steps to deal with such a breach.

In order to get to the bottom of this, we will write to the Speaker, Suzan Dantjie, the Public Protector, as well as the Integrity Commissioner at the Legislature to urgently investigate the matter, as this is a serious breach of the Code.

If the investigations prove that he indeed misled the public under oath, it will mean that the Premier is in contempt of the Legislature. In such an event, we will have no alternative but to lay charges of contempt against him in terms of the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament Act.

This will not be the first time that the Premier is linked to irregular practices. In 2016, while he was a Board Member of Parks Board, the Auditor-General found that a list of employees including a Board (Mokgoro), were doing business with the state and had not declared their interests. A copy of the AG’s 2016 report on Parks Board is annexed as Annexure “C”.

During this time, the same JFKS Consulting company was mentioned by the AG as not declared by the Premier. This raises serious questions. What is the Premier hiding about this specific company?

As aforementioned, we will today submit letters to the Public Protector, Integrity Commissioner and Speaker to investigate our suspicions and we will closely monitor the situation.

The DA will continue to be at the forefront to ensure that those voted into positions of power adhere to the required ethics

Issued by Freddy Sonakile, DA North West Chief Whip, 1 October 2019