The Democratic Alliance (DA) has nudged the public protector, Lawrence Mushwana, in an attempt to get a response to their request that he reopen his investigation into the Oilgate scandal.
DA national spokesperson Motlatjo Thetjeng said on Thursday that it was now nine months since the Democratic Alliance first wrote to Mushwana about the matter.
“Despite this, and an assurance in August 2007 that the subsequent report was due to be tabled in Parliament ‘soon’, nothing has happened,” Thetjeng said.
“As a consequence, the Oilgate scandal has been allowed to fester further -‒ four-and-a-half years since the story first broke, no one has been brought to book, and the public’s faith in those institutions designed to protect their best interests continues to wane.”
Thetjeng wrote to Mushwana on Thursday to request an explanation for the delay. The DA has also requested that he brief the public on the probe.
Last May, the Sunday Times reported that Sandi Majali, Imvume chief executive, threatened to “spill the beans” about how R11-million of public money ended up in the ANC’s 2004 election coffers. Majali said PetroSA approached Imvume for the donation, which was not what everyone had originally been led to believe.
The DA wrote asking for the investigation to be reopened a few days later, and in June Mushwana acknowledged receipt of the DA’s request. Two months later Mushwana’s office reported that its investigation was at an “advanced stage”, that it was finalising its investigations and a report would be tabled in Parliament soon.
“Since then, two further significant events have taken place,” Thetjeng said. “First, judgement was reserved in the Mail & Guardian‘s court case against the public protector. The M&G had challenged the accuracy of the Public Protector’s first report into Oilgate. All indications are that it will take some time for a judgement to be delivered.
“Second, at the ANC’s December 2007 conference in Polokwane, treasurer general Mendi Msimang effectively admitted the ANC’s guilt in the matter by announcing that: “Indeed we [the ANC] did receive a donation of R11-million in the normal course of our fundraising and, when it appeared there was a dispute around it, we immediately returned the entire donation to the donor in two installments …
“Yet the Public Protector has not said anything in response. It is not clear whether either of these matters have impacted on his second investigation — certainly the ANC’s admission suggests foul play,” Thetjeng said. ‒ I-Net Bridge