Speaker Baleka Mbete has barred parliamentary questions relating to the business relationship between Deputy President Jacob Zuma and his adviser Schabir Shaik, which was to be debated on Wednesday.
Mbete gave the official opposition Democratic Alliance notice of this earlier on Wednesday, chief whip Douglas Gibson said.
DA finance spokesperson Raenette Taljaard had asked whether Zuma would reconsider his reply to a previous question regarding his meetings with Thales executive Alain Thetard and, if so, say when he met Thetard and what he discussed with Thetard at these meetings.
She also was to have asked whether in light of the KPMG report submitted at the Shaik corruption trial — being heard in Durban — he would reconsider his claim to the parliamentary ethics committee last year that the payments he received ”via Schabir Shaik were interest-bearing loans” and, if not, what were the correct details of these payments.
Mbete is expected to provide an explanation to the National Assembly later on Wednesday afternoon.
The question about Thetard is believed to be central to the question whether the deputy president was bribed by the arms company, which is participating in South Africa’s controversial arms deal. — I-Net Bridge