Cape Town – African National Congress (ANC) treasure-general Paul Mashatile has defended the ruling party’s decision to suspend Mervyn Dirks, saying he should have gone through the proper channels, such as consulting the leadership, rather than going straight to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa).
This comes after the embattled ANC’s secretary-general, Ace Magashule, expressed his displeasure with the party’s decision to suspend Dirks, reminding the party’s leadership that they were the ones who encouraged members to report corruption.
Dirks was placed on precautionary suspension last month by ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina after he wrote to the Scopa chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa requesting that President Cyril Ramaphosa be summoned to the committee to account for an audio clip in which he can be heard admitting that the ANC used public funds for party purposes and implying that the funds came from the State Security Agency (SSA).
“You can’t suspend Mervyn Dirks because the ANC leadership has said we must expose whatever corruption, maladministration wherever it exists,” The Citizen quoted Magashule as saying.
ALSO READ: Leaked audio: ‘You can’t suspend Mervyn Dirks… he’s doing the right thing,’ Magashule tells ANC
However, speaking to reporters this week, Mashatile supported the ANC’s decision, arguing that Dirks circumvented party processes.
“Yes, we must all account but we have leaders we have appointed in caucus, we have leaders we have appointed in parliament … Certain things must go through them to be dealt with. There was nothing stopping Mervyn Dirks from going to the chief whip to say, ‘No, I think that we need to get the president to account on these matters.’ He had no right at all to be bypassing the leadership of the ANC,” Times Live quoted Mashatile as saying.
He added: “Sometimes people forget that they were actually deployed there by the ANC. They didn’t just walk in there, they came there on the list of the ANC. So we expect a particular behaviour from people on our list.”
Dirks recently appeared before the Scopa and also filed an executive complaint against Ramaphosa with the South African Public Protector’s office, which is led by Busisiwe Mkhwebane.
On receipt of Dirk’s complaint against Ramaphosa, Mkhwebane confirmed the probe into the leaked audio.
The Scopa, on the other hand, gave Ramaphosa seven to ten days to “explain” himself to the committee.
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Compiled by Sinothando Siyolo
