Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool says he has scrapped the Erasmus commission and reappointed it with expanded terms of reference.
Rasool appointed the commission, headed by judge Nathan Erasmus, in December last year, to probe allegations that Cape Town mayor Helen Zille’s administration illegally spied on renegade councillor Badih Chaaban.
His announcement on Wednesday followed the threat of a legal challenge by Zille.
”We are very aware that we needed to remove any vulnerabilities,” Rasool said at a media briefing.
Chaaban allegedly tried to bribe fellow councillors ahead of a floor-crossing window.
Rasool last month put the commission’s public hearings on hold while he weighed up Zille’s claim that its appointment was unconstitutional.
He said on Wednesday that after seeing a summary of the information already available to the commission, he was convinced ”more than ever” that the issues should be fully investigated.
At the same time, he was heeding the advice of the province’s legal teams.
Though they had given an assurance that there could be no valid constitutional challenge, the province did not want to be tied up in court for months before it was proved correct.
”I have therefore decided that it is prudent, to avoid any possibility of a legal challenge, that we issue a proclamation that will repeal the previous commission, and proclaim a new one,” he said.
Erasmus would still head the commission, its other members would remain the same, and the work it had done would be carried over.
Rasool said the new commission was being appointed solely in terms of the province’s Commissions Act, without any reference to Section 106 of the Municipal Systems Act, on which the previous commission had been challenged.
He said he was ”compelled”, after seeing the information the commission had already gathered, to expand its terms of reference to include a probe of Chaaban.
The new-look commission would also examine events around Sheval Arendse, who allegedly received cash from the Democratic Alliance after resigning his Cape Town council seat and quitting the Independent Democrats to contest the ensuing by-election for the DA.
Rasool said he had also asked the commission to ”ascertain the involvement of leadership elements and the blurring of state and party in the pursuit of such surveillance”.
The new-look commission would start immediately, and he had set June 30 as deadline for its report.
Rasool said he appealed to Zille to cooperate fully with the commission. – Sapa