Jaspreet Kindra
The removal of two Democratic Alliance members from the position of chair of the public accounts committees in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng legislatures last week is being interpreted by the opposition as an attempt by the African National Congress to muzzle independent voices.
The ANC is the majority party in both legislatures. Sources within the ANC say the decision was influenced by the party’s national position on the DA that it is not a “constructive opposition” and chose to be antagonistic. “They want to be the opposition they should then remain so,” said a senior ANC member.
New National Party member of the provincial legislature Johan Kilian was removed as chair in the Gauteng legislature, while Democratic Party member Eddie Trent was the casualty in the Eastern Cape legislature. Both men have served as chairs of the public accounts committee since the first democratic elections. Kilian has been replaced by Sibongile Nkomo of the Inkatha Freedom Party and Trent with Pan Africanist Congress MPL Zingisa Mkabile. The ANC in the Gauteng legislature maintains that since the NNP and the IFP had the same number of seats in the legislature, the position needs to be rotated. The ANC in the Eastern Cape legislature says Trent’s removal resulted from a breakdown of trust between the chair and the members of the public accounts committee. Trent was also found to have violated the legislature rules by making a political speech instead of tabling the multiparty committee’s “apolitical” report, says incoming chair Mkabile.
Some politicians across party lines, preferring to remain anonymous, claim that the removal is an attempt to clamp down on the DA. The ANC’s Gauteng representative Mike Ramagoma says: “Opposition parties are not independent, so they cannot make any inferences that we are clamping down on independent voices. The speaker of the legislature can for reasons of improving efficiency, reshuffle positions. We feel Nkomo’s appointment enhances the legislature.” Mkabile and others in the Gauteng legislature believe that Kilian performed his tasks efficiently. Kilian says relations between the ANC and himself had become strained in July last year, when he had called for a special hearing into payments to Eskom in ANC-run Vereeniging/ Kopanong and Randfontein councils. Electricity to the Randfontein CBD was cut despite businesses having paid their rates to the council. Kilian says he believed that the committee should investigate. The call was opposed by the ANC, who he says then boycotted the meeting. “Before that I was the best thing for the ANC since sliced bread,” says Kilian.
In the Eastern Cape legislature, Trent says he never made a political statement while presenting the public accounts committee’s report last July.
According to Hansard, Trent expressed outrage at the presence of only three MECs at the presentation. He pointed out that the treasury did not feel the need to take heed of any recommendations made by the committee and the legislature lacked the authority to compel them to do so. Northern Cape MPL Kennett Sinclair who represents the NNP at the Association of Public Accounts Committees in South Africa has expressed concern about the future of party representation in legislatures across the country. He says the Constitution is very unclear about the means to maintain accountability and transparency. Sinclair said the ANC’s position is contrary to accepted international best practice to let the opposition chair public accounts committees in the interest of transparency and fairness. He expressed concern over how long the other NNP chair of public accounts, Amie Venter, was going to last in North West province.
A Freedom Front member heads the committee in the Free State, an IFP MPL in KwaZulu-Natal, a United Democratic Movement member in the DA-run Western Cape. Sinclair points out that ANC MPLs head the committee in Mpumalanga, Northern Province and the Northern Cape. Ebrahim Fakir, senior researcher who works on provincial legislatures for the Institute for Democratic South Africa, says that while one should respect international practices, he says people should understand the country’s historical past as well. He adds: “Nothwithstanding that, the two removals do represent a disturbing trend. No sound reasons have been given to make the public understand why the chairs were removed. Particularly in the Gauteng case the new chair has no experience or any familiarity with the work done so far.” He says it remains to be seen whether the new chair has exceptional skills and whether the decision was prejudicial.