Top parliamentary officials are ignoring their own policy guidelines to protect African National Congress chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe from court action aimed at getting him to pay maintenance for two children he fathered.
The Sheriff of Cape Town has repeatedly requested permission from the legislature to serve Goniwe with a summons to appear in the Bedford maintenance court. But despite a policy, which explictly states that applications dealing with child maintenance will be considered, permission has not been granted.
The latest court date arranged for the hearing was October 3, when Goniwe was supposed to present himself at court with his identity book and proof of income, but because the summons could not be served, the case has been postponed and a new date has yet to be arranged.
Khuselo Gqeba, the Queenstown attorney who represents the mother of the children — a teacher in the Eastern Cape town — says he has been trying for nearly a year to serve papers on Goniwe, without success. “It is not about attacking him, we know he is an important person. We want his attention, we want to bring him to court, the lady is suffering,” said Gqeba.
Goniwe does not deny that the children are his, but he did not want to discuss his relationship with their mother for the record, saying it is a private matter.
His uncle, Alex Goniwe, who is among the family elders dealing with support for the children on his behalf, also declined to elaborate on contact between the family and the woman. Asked why he did not simply go to Bedford and meet with the maintenance officer, Goniwe said he had not been handed any summons. “If I am served, I will go,” he said. He referred other questions about the process to Parliament.
In terms of the Powers, Privileges and Immunities Act, legal process documents may not be served on anyone within the parliamentary precinct without the permission of the Speaker of the National Assembly, the Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces or someone they have delegated.
The current view of Parliament, conveyed to the Sheriff of Cape Town, Hennie Hurter, in a January 2006 letter from the then chief legal advisor to Parliament, Eshaam Palmer, is that it will generally not grant permission to serve papers relating to debts. Too many attorneys, the letter suggests, are treating Parliament as a convenient place to pin down MPs and employees in pursuit of payment.
Maintenance cases, however, are to be treated as an exception to this general rule, the letter says. That approach was intended to give expression to the commitment of the Speaker, Baleka Mbete, to advancing gender rights and the quality of life of women.
Mbete has not responded to questions asking why an exception was being made for Goniwe.
Her apparent willingness to protect Goniwe is the subject of considerable speculation in the parliamentary service and among ANC MPs, who say she has consistently been at loggerheads with the ANC chief whip. Goniwe is seen as backing the Secretary to Parliament, Zingile Dingani, in a battle with Mbete over how control of the legislature is shared.
Goniwe is the most prominent case among MPs on whom the sheriff’s office has struggled to effect service. Palmer’s January letter followed a series of exchanges with Hurter last year, in which they attempted to set up a mechanism for handling the increasing volume of process service applications being directed at Parliament. These currently number 20 to 30 a month, and range from judgements imposing garnishee orders on parliamentary salaries to subpoenas.
According to people familiar with the situation, permission is seldom granted, with Parliament either denying requests or, as is the case with several prominent MPs, simply ignoring them. Parliamentary officials are also seen as reluctant to assist in arranging for service to take place elsewhere, or to provide alternative addresses where members and staff may be contacted.
The sheriff’s office, however, continues to write to Parliament each week requesting permission to serve papers dealing with debt, as well as other summonses and subpoenas. Hurter said he could not comment on specific cases, but the system has been functioning poorly for some time. “The current state of affairs is of serious concern to us,” he said.
Meanwhile, Goniwe hit back this week at allegations from within the ANC that he is party to an effort to manage the fallout from the Travelgate scandal by ensuring that only junior MPs are prosecuted while more senior figures, including himself, are allowed to escape with settlement payments to liquidators. “All members have equal status in the eyes of the ANC,” he told journalists, following a meeting of the parliamentary caucus.