DA maintains parly must probe Mantashe as his ‘lies continue to chop and change’

The Democratic Alliance (DA) said in a statement on Friday that it remained firm in its stance that parliament’s joint committee on ethics and members’ interests should investigate Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe.

This after the minister said on Thursday that no Sunday World journalists were bribed to drop the story about a love triangle involving him, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, and Lerato Habiba Makgatho.

DA MP Kevin Mileham said “Mantashe’s lies to the public continue to chop and change” after the minister retracted the bribery claim.

“Mantashe has now stated that he lied about bribing these members of the media. Such a turn of events is almost comical in nature, and even if the minister lied about the bribes, it is only an indication that he acted in an openly dishonest manner. It also begs the question, if Minister Mantashe has lied about this matter, what else has he lied about?” the statement reads.

Mileham added that the fact that Mantashe chooses “to chop and change his words does not exempt him from the fact that allegations have been levelled against him and he still has a case to answer for”.

“Where there is smoke there more often than not is a fire.”

He said the party also implored Sunday World to continue with its investigation into this matter.

Meanwhile, party Black First Land First (BLF) has said the South African National Editor’s Forum (Sanef) should “stop protecting” Mantashe as this promoted “criminality and corruption”.

Sanef met with Mantashe on Thursday at a meeting attended by the editor of the Sunday World, Makudu Sefara.

“The media must not try to make a gentlemen’s deal with Gwede to make his self-confessed crimes go away,” the BLF said.

The organisation described the meeting Sanef convened with Mantashe as being unethical and that it was intended to make the minister’s “problems go away with a mere apology”.

“This is an insult. Sanef can’t investigate itself and then determine remedies. A criminal case of corruption and bribery has been opened against Mantashe yesterday by BLF. We call on Sanef to cooperate with the police and stop its whitewashing shenanigans.”

(Compiled by Makhosandile Zulu)

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