ANC MPs lay complaints against chief whip over son’s tender

“Everyone must be held accountable,” ANC MP Mervyn Dirks said after he laid a complaint against his own chief whip Pemmy Majodina at the Public Protector over a PPE tender awarded to her son.

ANC MP Lawrence McDonald also laid opened a criminal complaint of fraud and corruption against Majodina at the Cape Town Central Police Station on Friday morning.

On Sunday, Majodina issued a statement saying she regrets her son Mkhonto weSizwe Majodina’s involvement in the procurement of thermometers for ANC constituency offices worth R52 500 in January 2021.

ALSO READ: ANC chief whip ‘regrets’ son’s involvement in PPE deal

Constituency offices receive their funding from the caucus. Parliament provides each party with money for its constituency work, and it is thus public funds.

Mkhonto weSizwe Majodina is the sole director of King Mzimshe Trading.

According to Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) information provided to the Public Protector by Dirks, the previous sole director of the company is Majodina’s daughter Lungiswa Majodina. The change in directorship was made on 16 January 2020.

“The Chief Whip is aware that this may be reasonably perceived as a form of abuse of office and nepotism due to the proximity of her son,” reads the statement.

“The Chief Whip reiterates her long-standing commitment to upholding the law.”

Majodina also wrote to the ANC Integrity Commission, “…to express her wish and willingness to voluntarily appear before itself at its convenient time”.

She also said she is willing to submit herself to a parliamentary ethics probe.

“It is truly regrettable that we have reached a point in history where we have to lay a complaint against our own Chief Whip with the Public Protector,” said Dirks after he laid his complaint.

“It was not an easy decision, but we realised that we as Legislators cannot claim to be fighting against corruption, malfeasance and unethical behaviour, when we cannot hold our own accountable.”

Dirks’s statement to the Public Protector states that in terms of legislation and Section 217 of the Constitution, “… it is apparent that Chief Whip of the ANC in Parliament, Hon. Pemmy Majodina has broken the law in the awarding of a tender to her son.

“This act has defrauded Parliament and the taxpayer, as nepotist ways were used to grant him the tender.

“We also recognise that no due process was followed.”

He further raised an allegation that Majodina created a post of graphic design in her office, which employed her son.

“No due process was followed, and this deed expresses gross nepotism and disrespect of this public office.

“In the interest of public funds, fairness and taking a stance against corruption, we ask the Public Protector to urgently investigate this matter.”

Deeper

McDonald said he investigated the matter for a while. “The deeper I delved, the more I got concerned,” he said.

After Majodina’s statement over the weekend, he thought: “If we don’t do something, we’re going to have a problem.”

Simmering factional tension in the ANC caucus boiled over last month ahead of the vote on whether Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane should be impeached. The ANC MPs aligned to the so-called RET-faction opposed this, with Dirks one of the MPs vocally against the move.

Dirks and McDonald deny that their complaints against Majodina are motivated by the party’s internecine intrigues.

McDonald said he doesn’t belong to any faction, and he supports President Cyril Ramaphosa. He said: “I’m definitely the least factional person in the ANC.”

He said he is strongly opposed to any form of corruption, and he would have been derelict in his duty if he didn’t report the matter.

“I was just doing my duty as an MP,” he said. Dirks said the decision to lay a complaint against Majodina wasn’t taken lightly.

“We came to the realisation that it is the work of our generation to set a greater moral and ethical standard for those who are about to succeed us.

“Now, whilst we are the MP’s that are actioning this complaint against the Chief Whip, it is a stark reminder to us that we ourselves must have the highest standard of integrity as representatives of the people of South Africa.”

He said: “Our actions today [Friday] are a notice to all that the executive must be held accountable, the judiciary must be held accountable, we must be held accountable, everyone must be held accountable.”

On whether Majodina should step aside while she is under investigation, McDonald said it is up to the ANC, but she should do the right thing and answer the allegations.

Earlier this week, Majodina’s counterpart from the DA, Natasha Mazzone, laid a complaint with Parliament’s ethics committee.

“South Africans need parliamentarians who are beyond reproach, especially those tasked with senior positions in Parliament where they are meant to hold public office bearers to account and demonstrate their oversight mandates. This is the only way corruption would ever be rooted out,” she said.

“Should any impropriety be found regarding Majodina or her son’s involvement in this deal with the ANC, the Chief Whip must be disciplined. These allegations not only cast a shadow of her party’s already tainted image, but it also casts aspersions over Majodina’s integrity as a Chief Whip in Parliament.”