PARLIAMENT’s correctional services portfolio committee chairman, MP Aubrey Mokoena, has rejected a call by the Democratic Party for him to step down as committee head. According to the DP, there is a conflict of interests in his sumltaneously chairing the committee and the company that secured the R244-million contract to build a new super-maximum prison near Kokstad. Mokoena said on Friday he was chosen as committee chairman only last month, while the building of the prison began a year ago. “I can’t believe how ridiculous people can be,” he said, adding that there is no scandal surrounding the tender, which Rainbow, a black empowerment group of which he is non-executive chairman, won in partnership with construction giant Concor. Mokoena said he had disclosed his involvement in Rainbow in the parliamentary register of members’ interests, which is a public document.