An apartheid-era law is causing headaches for a committee set up to investigate the underlying reasons for instability and conflict in the Western Cape minibus taxi industry.
The ”problematic area” relates to Ordinance 13 of 1978, which governs the appointment of committees of inquiry, and which stipulates that the proceedings of such committees should not be open to the public.
”We can’t have a matter so much in the public interest [taxi violence] and not open it to the public,” the committee chairperson, advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza, said on Wednesday.
The committee is agonising over what he calls a ”very peremptory provision” that cannot be ignored, but which seemingly puts the committee in conflict with South Africa’s constitutional democracy.
Ntsebeza said a way has to be found to deal with the provision, and is confident a solution will be found to the ”conundrum”.
”If it means that provisions must be struck down in the quickest time, we will look at that,” he said, conceding that it is a ”weighty” and ”very serious” matter.
Ntsebeza, flanked by members of the four-man committee, told a media briefing that the committee has already engaged with various role players, including Western Cape transport minister Mcebisi Skwatsha and community safety minister Leonard Ramatlakane.
The committee, which has an investigative component, also met with labour, business, the National Prosecuting Authority, the National Intelligence Agency and the South African Police Service.
It has not yet managed to meet with two of the main protagonists in the taxi violence, the Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association and the Congress of Democratic Taxi Associations.
Ntsebeza said the committee intends to be as inclusive as possible and welcomes written submissions, preferably in affidavit form.
Referring to the ”wide and sweeping powers” the committee has, Ntsebeza said these confer upon the committee the power of search and seizure, as well as subpoena.
He reiterated that the committee is independent and will not be used as a ”political football” by the African National Congress or opposition political parties.
There have been suggestions that the committee, which was instituted by Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool, could be used as a tool in his provincial leadership battle with Skwatsha.
Ntsebeza said the committee will remain ”vigilant” after a security sweep detected some sort of listening device in one of the rooms.
He said this was probably left over from the time of the Desai commission, which was held in the same venue at the provincial legislature.
The Desai commission looked at claims that Western Cape legislature was bugged and whether German con artist Jurgen Harksen had funded the Democratic Alliance.
The taxi inquiry intends to hold its hearings for an entire month, from the beginning of June, with a report available in July. — Sapa