The chief whip of the opposition Democratic Alliance is to propose to the National Assembly on Wednesday that a joint ad hoc committee of MPs should be appointed to probe ”all aspects of the handling” of the Travelgate scandal by Parliament.
DA MP Douglas Gibson said in a statement on Tuesday that the committee ”must be tasked with investigating whether any member or official of Parliament has in any way obstructed the investigation of the scandal, whether all members and officials and office bearers have cooperated with the Scorpions in their investigation and whether the Scorpions themselves have a satisfactory explanation for the tardy investigation they have conducted”.
Travelgate refers to the misuse of parliamentary travel vouchers by MPs, officials and travel agents.
Gibson said: ”The committee must be requested to investigate what action, if any, should be taken against members who have been charged criminally or have been convicted, or who face charges or who have not been charged at all.”
He is proposing that members from both Houses — the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces — be appointed to the committee.
Gibson noted that three-and-a-half years have elapsed since the Travelgate scandal was uncovered by Parliament’s finance department. ”Only a handful of MPs have been charged and convicted, while a few are due to come to trial in July.”
He asked about the rest. ”There are stories that up to a hundred MPs are implicated in one way or another.”
He continued: ”One senior office bearer is reputed to have booked seven return tickets to Johannesburg at the airport, using parliamentary vouchers, cancelled them the next day and used the money to buy tickets to travel overseas with his family on holiday.”
Other senior members are reputed to have had substantial amounts paid into their private banking accounts by travel agents.
”Another senior MP is reported to have ‘borrowed’ a substantial amount of money from a travel agent who paid the amount into the MP’s account. Surely these matters cannot be allowed to rest,” Gibson asked.
”Corruption is so rife in South Africa that the public becomes tired of hearing about these cases. This corruption fatigue enables some of the corrupt to escape unpunished. This cannot be allowed to happen in respect of Travelgate since Parliament must be seen as a shining light of incorruptibility and an example to our country.” — I-Net Bridge