Mbete cleared of wrongdoing over unpaid Speaker’s Ball bill

National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete has reportedly been cleared by parliament’s Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests of any wrongdoing related to the non-payment of an events company that organised the Annual Speaker’s Ball earlier this year in February.

This after DA chief whip John Steenhuisen laid the complaint against Mbete with the committee alleging that the speaker had breached the code of ethical conduct by not acting in a manner that engendered public trust, EWN reports.

According to the report, Mbete argued that Steenhuisen’s complaint had no merit as the function was not organised by her. The event was held on February 9 at the Bay Hotel in Camps Bay after President Jacob Zuma’s the state of the nation address.

At the time, Mbete said in a statement: “This dinner is not hosted nor funded by neither the African National Congress nor Parliament. It is a private dinner.”

She said the event was an annual ball that was hosted for the first time in 2016 as an annual meeting and networking opportunity.

The speaker reportedly intervened when she learnt that the events company contracted by the ball’s organisers had not been paid. The service providers were subsequently paid.

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