Cape Town — Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan has come under fire for withholding documents regarding related to the South African Airways (SAA) deal amid corruption allegations by former Director-General Kgathatso Thlakudi.
In a statement, the department of public enterprises (DPE) reiterated the important role of Parliament’s conduct, but refuted the claims of non-cooperation with the Portfolio Committee in its examination of the transaction for SAA.
“The Department of Public Enterprises has done everything according to the prescripts of the law.” the DPE said.
“There is no information that is within our legal remit to provide on the SAA transaction that the DPE has withheld from Parliament. All our engagements with the Portfolio Committee attest our committment to cooperate fully on every aspect of the work,” they added.
DPE Refutes Claims Regarding Portfolio Committee’s Requests for SAA Deal Documents. pic.twitter.com/sf9jPStQBv
— DPE_ZA (@DPE_ZA) December 14, 2023
The portfolio committee on public enterprises revealed that their investigation had stalled because Gordhan had failed to cooperate with them and hand over documents, IOL reported.
Thlakudi believed the SAA deal was undervalued significantly by a few billion rands, with Parliamentary legal adviser Andile Tetyana saying several attempts were made to get the documents of the sale of SAA.
“The committee raised concern that the documents that the minister failed to submit were critical for the committee to be able to test the veracity of the allegations.”
“The lack of transparency on the SAA transaction and the lack of documentary evidence further cast aspersions and doubt on whether the SAA transaction was above board,” Tetyana said.
PPC on Public Enterprises has hit out at minster, Pravin Gordhan for allegedly refusing to provide crucial documents related to the sale of SAA. IFP’s Inkosi Mzamo Buthelezi says Gordhan behaves as though he is not accountable to the committee.
Watch: https://t.co/Td7f8rKP2q pic.twitter.com/gkl4H10cZu
— Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) December 13, 2023
According to EWN, Members of Parliament have taken a dim view on the situation and that Gordhan was impacting their ability to conduct proper oversight over the executive and the sale of a public asset.
Some MPs called for the same to be put on hold until Gordhan complied. It was also suggested he could have held a behind-closed-doors meeting to share the documents, which he declared “confidential”.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)’s Omphile Maotwe called for an ad hoc committee to be set up for further investigations, while The Democratic Alliance (DA)’s Samantha Graham-Mare said that transparency was imperative.
Gordhan received very little protection from his own party, with the ANC saying there’s too little time before elections for a new committee to launch a probe and it would request the Speaker to summon Gordhan to produce the documents instead.
According to Chairperson of the committee, Khaya Magaxa, they did not want to jump the gun by calling for an ad hoc committee to investigate the corruption allegations in the SAA deal, as the portfolio committee was still able to do its work.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
