OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday
OPPOSITION parties have slammed African National Congress (ANC) members of Parliament’s public accounts committee for backtracking on their call for the involvement of the Heath unit to help investigate the governments R43bn arms deal.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) and African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) charged the ANC members with submitting to pressure from the executive for the unit’s exclusion, but the chairman of the ANC public accounts study group, Andrew Feinstein, denied this, said the Business Day newspaper.
The conflicting views on the resolution, to be explored at a committee meeting tomorrow, represented a rift in the traditionally nonpartisan committee along party lines, committee chairman Gavin Woods said after a committee meeting yesterday.
All parties agreed that the four cabinet ministers who expressed a wish to meet the committee – Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin, Public Enterprises Minister Jeff Radebe and Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota as well as Deputy President Jacob Zuma – should be called to state their views.
The ANC’s statement said the committee’s report to the National Assembly “did not in any way single out any of the investigative bodies as institutions that must be appointed”.
The statement, drafted by Feinstein, deputy chief whip of the national assembly Geoff Doidge and chief whip of the National Council of Provinces Enver Surtee, justified the decision of President Thabo Mbeki to exclude the Heath unit from the investigation.
Feinstein denied the ANC group had reneged on its original position and reaffirmed the ANC’s strong support for a comprehensive investigation. A report issued by the committee in November, and subsequently adopted by the National Assembly, recommended that the Heath unit and three other bodies be appointed to investigate alleged corruption.
Feinstein said at the press conference that their resolution “did not cast anything in stone.” But Woods accused the ANC of playing with words, reiterating his belief the committee’s resolution did in fact recommend a multi-agency probe, including the Heath unit.
Woods said he had staked his reputation on this interpretation and had been attacked by the executive for it. He had done so on the basis that all committee members had voted individually in favour of the involvement of four agencies at an exploratory meeting of the committee.