OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday
THE African National Congress in the Western Cape on Monday ordered the party’s disciplinary committee to provide it with a further report in order to decide whether or not to bring other charges against embattled MP Mamphi Ramotsamai.
ANC provincial secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha said the working committee was officially informed on Monday evening that Ramotsamai had been acquitted by the disciplinary committee on a charge of misappropriation of constituency funds in 1999. The acquittal followed the failure of one of the witnesses to attend the hearing on Saturday.
Mandrax tablets worth about R750_000 were found in a minibus in the garage at Ramotsamais home on Friday. Police found 15 packs containing about 15_000 tablets inside the panelling of the minibus. A further five packs of Mandrax containing 1_000 tablets each were seized when police stopped a car near Delft, on the Cape Flats. The car had apparently been seen leaving Ramotsamai’s premises.
“The working committee has decided to accept the acquittal on the said charge and asked the disciplinary committee to provide it with a further report so as to decide whether or not to bring other charges relating to the operation of the constituency office.
Skwatsha emphasised the distinction between the disciplinary process and the discovery of Mandrax tablets Ramotsamai’s Goodwood home on Friday.
“The working committee has reaffirmed the resolution by its general council on Saturday that the law must take its course, and any member charged with drug trafficking will be suspended and if found guilty, immediately expelled,” Skwatsha said.
Two Eastern Cape men and a Cape Flats woman appeared briefly in the Kuilsrivier Magistrate’s Court on Monday after the Mandrax bust.
Zandasile Sicundla and Tongilizwe Xuywa from the Eastern Cape and Sheila Hlanjwa, of Khayelitsha on the Cape Flats, were not asked to plead and the case was postponed to March 27.
Sicundla and Tongilizwe are to remain in police custody while Xuywa was granted bail of R20_000.
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