The multiparty committee that will decide whether Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool misled the legislature plans to hold open hearings ”as soon as possible”, its chairperson said on Monday.
Provincial deputy speaker Yousuf Gabru, who is chairing the six-person committee, said the committee sees its work as ”quite important” and hopes to get it done as soon as possible.
However, Gabru was not able to give an exact date for when the committee’s hearings will begin.
Gabru said the premier and former provincial auditor general Imraan Jeewa are expected to appear before the committee and will be able to call any witnesses they want.
Last month, the committee appointed advocate and University of Cape Town professor of labour law Halton Cheadle as a legal consultant.
Gabru said that since its April 20 appointment, the committee has held two closed meetings to finalise procedure and fine-tune the timetable.
Besides Gabru, the other members of the committee are Zodwa Magwaza and Chris Stali, both of the African National Congress (ANC), Lennit Max and Kobus Brynard, both of the Democratic Alliance (DA), and Mzwandile Manjiya of the United Independent Front.
The formation of the committee follows a DA motion on March 13, which was unexpectedly supported by the ANC.
The motion called for a probe into whether Rasool misled the legislature in statements last year over provincial minister of community safety Leonard Ramatlakane’s spending on security upgrades to his home.
It noted that Jeewa had contradicted the premier.
However, the motion has since been amended on the initiative of the ANC to provide for a more general investigation into whether the house was misled, without specifically targeting Rasool. — Sapa