MPs address ongoing conflict of interest

PARLIAMENT’s Ad Hoc Committee investigating allegations made by the South African Police Service's KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Commissioner, Lt Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, is set to tackle the persistent issue of conflict of interest when they meet today.

- THEOLIN TEMBO [e-mail]

The issue first arose on Monday when proceedings were delayed for over an hour after suspended deputy police commissioner Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya raised the issue of conflict of interest.

MPs from the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) and the DA, who are part of the committee, are complainants in criminal cases lodged in the wake of Mkhwanazi's July 6 briefing. The cases led to the search and seizure raid on Sibiya last week. The MPs heard that the terms of reference of the ad hoc hearing do not empower them to make any decision on conflicts of interest.

“The only recourse is to write to the Speaker and alert that office of matters that have arisen,’ chairperson Soviet Lekganyane said. Sibiya agreed to proceed with the hearings, but he did so in protest, as he would be “participating in a process that is tainted”. The Economic Freedom Front’s Leigh-Ann Mathys said there is no independent member of Parliament, as “we are a political party democracy”.