By Johnathan Paoli
Members of Parliament’s ad hoc committee investigating allegations of corruption and political interference in the criminal justice system have criticised what they described as a “watered-down” draft report, saying it failed to reflect the committee’s deliberations and recommendations.
Meeting virtually on Thursday, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party MPs led criticism of the third draft of the committee’s report, arguing that members’ oral and written submissions had either been omitted or substantially altered.
EFF MP Leigh-Anne Mathys said committee members had repeatedly submitted inputs, but these were still not properly reflected.
“We are here again with this third draft where the content team has not adequately captured the inputs. I’m speaking particularly on behalf of the EFF,” she said.
While acknowledging that the content team was responsible for drafting the report in parliamentary language, Mathys said it was not its role to change the substance of members’ submissions.
“It cannot change the spirit of what it is that we are trying to say in our submissions. It’s not your job,” she said.
Mathys questioned how the report had been compiled, accusing the drafting team of “neutralising” members’ recommendations instead of faithfully reflecting them for debate.
“It begs the question, on whose instructions is the content team drafting this report?” she asked.
She also questioned why some additional submissions had been incorporated while others were omitted.
MK Party MP David Skosana echoed those concerns, describing the process as frustrating after months of deliberations.
“We’ve made inputs in writing, Chair. It’s disturbing to say we’re going to submit again another time, like we are now reinventing the wheel. We look foolish. We look like we are stupid. We don’t know what we are doing, because all what we did is not captured,” he said.
Skosana said members should not be required to repeat submissions that had already been made and recorded.
“Hence, I think it’s suspicious. Somebody is telling them what to do. But for us, we are disappointed, Chair. We are very disappointed,” he said.
Committee chairperson Soviet Lekganyane acknowledged that concerns had been raised by several members.
“I got concerns from several members of the committee, which to a large extent I’m agreeing with them that most of the inputs made by committee members in our last engagements are not reflected in the report,” he said.
Lekganyane proposed that members work through the report page by page to ensure every submission was captured before it was finalised.
Committee content producer Christine Silkstone said the drafting team understood members’ frustrations.
“I want to acknowledge the members’ feelings and the feeling that this report doesn’t reflect what they want. Our intention is and our commitment is to do our very best for the committee,” she said.
Silkstone said drafting the report had been challenging because members had expressed numerous views without reaching collective positions on many issues.
“From a drafting perspective, it’s very hard for us to present a draft preliminary report when we don’t have a committee position,” she said.
She acknowledged that the drafting team may have gone too far in proposing wording in some sections, describing the draft as “a humble start for discussion”.
Lekganyane thanked the content team for its work and encouraged members to continue refining the report.
“We are on the finishing line. Let’s hold each other by the hand and work together because this is teamwork,” he said.
The meeting also turned to developments at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, where Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) head Andrea Johnson was giving evidence.
ANC MP Xola Nqola told the committee that Johnson had admitted before the commission that she had misled the ad hoc committee on aspects of IDAC’s investigation into allegations made by National Coloured Congress leader Fadiel Adams.
Lekganyane said any witness who misled Parliament faced a serious matter.
“If a witness comes before us and deposits a statement before this committee and it later emerges that the witness was not honest or truthful with the ad hoc committee, it’s a very serious indictment on the part of the witness,” he said.
Skosana said he intended opening a criminal case against Johnson on Friday.
The committee resolved to give its content team another opportunity to revise the report by incorporating members’ submissions before reconvening to consider a further draft.
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