With a code of conduct coming into existence, MPs will be compelled to disclose their financial interests. Philippa Garson reports
WINNIE Madikizela-Mandela’s mysterious financial circumstances will come under the spotlight when the code of conduct for parliamentarians comes into effect.
Her financial position has been the subject of intense speculation following disclosures in court records in the divorce proceedings with her former husband President Nelson Mandela last week that her monthly expenditure of R107 000 far exceeds her two after-tax salaries — – as MP (R10 000) and African National Congress Women’s League president — amounting to R16 000.
Now questions are being asked about whether she has additional income and if so, where it comes from. Or, if there is no additional income, whether she is indeed headed for financial ruin. The president is due to make an ex gratia settlement to her, but the amount is unknown.
A request was made for Madikizela-Mandela’s financial position to be submitted to the court during the divorce proceedings; instead the court received a record of her salary and monthly expenditure. Although the information furnished was “unsatisfactory”, as a member of Mandela’s legal team put it, the dispute over assets was never heard and the matter was laid to rest. “There were a lot of technical issues that we could have taken up but we wanted to get the case over,” he said.
More clarity on Madikizela-Mandela’s financial position may be forthcoming once Parliament’s joint Rules Committee of Senate and the National Assembly reaches agreement on a code of ethics. This will compel MPs to disclose financial and other interests which could have a bearing on the way they perform their public duties.
Such information will soon have to be disclosed in a register available for public scrutiny. Although agreement was expected to be reached on the code of conduct this week, some issues are still being debated by the parties. The Inkatha Freedom Party, National Party and the Democratic Party oppose the disclosure of the value of residential property ownership and state pensions, while the ANC and Pan African Congress are all for them.
The ANC has spearheaded the move for public disclosures of this kind, but over the months general consensus has emerged among the parties.
Other issues still to be agreed on are the extent to which disclosure extends to MPs’ families and the mechanism for and composition of those in charge of enforcing the code. A consultant lawyer, Hugh Corder, was appointed this week by the committee to draw up the new rules.
Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Kader Asmal, who headed the sub-committee which drafted the code, told the Mail & Guardian he was “acutely disappointed” at the delay in adopting the code.
Richard Calland, head of Parliamentary Information and Monitoring Service (Pims), said it was “frustrating that the code of conduct is still not finally resolved”. The delay, said Calland, was partly due to the chairmanship of President of Senate Kobie Coetsee who “does not have a clear grasp of the issues of substance and was not effective in facilitating a speedy resolution of the issues”.
On the question of Madikizela-Mandela, Calland said it was important to distinguish between “politics of envy and politics of accountability. Wealth in itself is not important. What is important are the sources of wealth and whether or not they affect the way in which public officials perform their duties.”
The code of conduct, said Calland, was about “finding mechanisms to reduce a conflict of interests affecting the way that public officials perform their duties.”
Mike Ellis, DP representative on the parliamentary committee on Ethics, said Madikzela-Mandela’s financial situation should be investigated. He said she was now under “extreme pressure to indicate where those sources of wealth come from to enable her to have the extraordinary lifestyle that she does”.
Ellis said he doubted whether Mandela’s financial transactions complied with the ANC’s own strict code of conduct for its MPs.
According to the ANC’s code, all its MPs must declare assets to the organisation and any other positions they occupy where financial gain is involved. They can be ordered to step down if they contravene the code.
“The secretary general of the ANC shall establish a register of financial interests which shall be accessible to members of the National Executive Committee. In addition, every elected member shall register any gift which exceeds the value of R200 in such a register,” reads the code.
All ANC MPs were requested to disclose this information when they took office in Parliament. Assistant to ANC secretary general Cyril Ramaphosa, Donne Cooney, could not confirm whether Madikizela-Mandela had made disclosures to the NEC.
ANC representative Ronnie Mamoepa would not be drawn on whether he had signed. “I have no reason to believe that there were people who did not sign the assets register,” he said.
Speaking in his capacity as chairman of the ANC’s disciplinary committee, Asmal said action could only be taken against an MP when “a matter was referred to it by the NEC, the National Working Committee, officials or a province”.
ANC deputy chief whip Naledi Pandor said the organisation’s monitoring of its MPs had so far focused mainly on tightening up checks around overseas travel and that updated disclosures around finances and gifts contained an “element of voluntary declaration … Maybe our machinery is not yet as tight as it should be,” said Pandor.