The terms of a probe into whether Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool misled the provincial legislature were amended on Tuesday afternoon, in a motion supported by all parties in the house.
An ad-hoc committee, to be named by speaker Shaun Byneveldt on Wednesday, will now inquire only into whether the legislature ”has been misled”.
The original motion, proposed by the Democratic Alliance on March 13 and unexpectedly supported by Rasool’s African National Congress, used more specific wording.
It said the committee should report ”as to whether the premier has misled the House”.
DA chief whip Alan Windie described the change as ”very technical”.
Rasool told the legislature last year that the Auditor General’s (AG) office had urged the standing committee on public accounts to condone costly and controversial security improvements made to provincial minister of community safety Leonard Ramatlakane’s home.
However the AG at the time, Imraan Jeewa, subsequently denied making such a recommendation.
Byneveldt told the South African Press Association earlier on Tuesday he had finished consulting parties’ chief whips and would announce the multiparty committee on Wednesday. — Sapa