CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Dipuo Peters, the Deputy Minister of Small Business Development, and Floyd Shivambu, a member of Parliament (MP) for the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), both attempted to avoid being sanctioned by Parliament on Tuesday.
They were both judged to have violated the members’ code of ethics.
Both addressed letters to Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula at the eleventh hour, as the National Assembly was about to accept reports from the ethics committee recommending that they be sanctioned.
The committee discovered that Peters had broken the code three times during her time as Transport Minister, and Shivambu had neglected to disclose financial gains resulting from the VBS Mutual Bank scandal.
A one-term ban from debates and sittings during the legislative year was the recommendation of the ethics committee regarding Peters’ activities with the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa during her tenure as Minister of Transport.
Peters asked Mapisa-Nqakula to take the item off the schedule, but she declined.
In addition, Shivambu requested that Parliament halt the deduction of nine days from his pay, citing the ongoing court case involving the VBS.
His attorney asked that the case be returned to the ethics committee for a more thorough inquiry, but Mapisa-Nqakula remained unmoved once more.
“There is no legal impediment currently to these matters being considered before the house today,” she stated.
In the meantime, ActionSA’s Ian Cameron is scheduled to get a public apology from Minister of Police Bheki Cele for an impolite outburst that he received during a public meeting in Cape Town.
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