Cape Town | Monday
ALTHOUGH he had resigned as chairman of Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts, IFP MP Dr Gavin Woods said he still hoped to be part of Scopa.
Woods, who resigned his position over the probe into the arms deal last month, said he believed he had built up some experience.
“I think I can help and add my bit into the committee, but really its going to depend on my party whether they want to redeploy me there or not,” he said on the SABC Newsmaker programme on Sunday.
Woods said he was also aware that by sitting on the committee, it might intimidate the new chairperson.
He said his presence might also arouse certain emotions and he did not wish to become a problem.
“I’ve resigned simply to put the committee first, to give it another chance, but if my staying is not going to help that, it would be silly for me to stay.”
Woods resigned citing the polarisation of the committee along political lines, particularly regarding the arms deal.
Asked if interference in his handling of the arms probe had at any time reached the point where he was threatened with physical violence, Woods said it had not.
However, he said he and his former colleague Andrew Feinstein, a one-time key ally on the committee, had reason to believe they were closely watched.
“We both received anonymous telephone calls from time to time which were quite aggressive, but beyond that I don’t think we ever had reason to believe that we were going to be assassinated or anything,” Woods said.
He said they had both experienced major problems with their telephones and were aware of being followed from time to time.
“One doesn’t want to get carried away with one’s imagination but it appears that we were actually being watched at times, physically.”
Woods said arms deals were done in a confidential and secretive way and on reflection, on the international arms trade, its very seldom one gets to the bottom of things, he said in reply to a question whether the public could ever be satisfied they knew everything about the arms deal.
He said he believed the chairperson of Scopa needed greater definition regarding his authority and role because it was one of these unusual traditions where you have an opposition chairperson “and he needs to know what his limits of authority are.”
“They just simply don’t exist as things are at the moment. I think the Speaker, the chairperson, the rules committee of parliament they all need to get involved and learn from this experience and help the committee re-establish itself.”
Woods said he hoped that all the parties who have the authority and the responsibility, would now come forward and shake Scopa up.
“I hope they can get it going again within the next couple of months and that it can go from strength to strength,” Woods said. – Sapa
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