The Democratic Alliance has criticised the African National Congress’s ”choice” of Pan Africanist Congress MP Themba Godi to chair Parliament’s watchdog standing committee on public accounts (Scopa).
This demonstrates the ANC’s ”willingness to further erode democracy and transparency to protect its own interests”, DA MP and Scopa member Anchen Dreyer said on Monday.
”Godi has long been a proponent of the idea that the PAC should merge with the ANC. It is therefore difficult to escape the conclusion that Godi has been co-opted on to Scopa because of his sympathies with the ruling party,” she said.
”The nomination of Godi makes a mockery of the tradition that an opposition-party MP should chair Scopa. By choosing its own candidate from the opposition benches, the ANC is able to choose an opposition MP that it knows will be pliant to its wishes.”
The extraordinary allegations surrounding the so-called Oilgate scandal and the arms deal had no doubt prompted the ANC to choose another lapdog opposition MP as chairperson in the hope of squashing any further embarrassing revelations.
The ANC knew the chances of the truth emerging would have been far greater if the DA’s spokesperson on Scopa, Eddie Trent, had been picked, Dreyer said. — Sapa