By Johnathan Paoli
DA chief whip Glynnis Breytenbach on Monday night withdrew a remark to ANC chief whip Mdumiseni Ntuli after MPs accused her of being condescending during heated deliberations by Parliament’s ad hoc committee on alleged criminal justice system capture.
While the committee was working through its draft report page by page, Breytenbach told Ntuli she had been dealing with laws governing classified information “before he was born”.
The final report must be submitted to the National Assembly on Friday.
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The clash started after the committee considered the DA’s submission that the inquiry had exposed uncertainty over the balance between intelligence confidentiality and parliamentary accountability, including findings by the Inspector-General of Intelligence (IGI), Imtiaz Fazel,
Breytenbach said the committee’s inability to access Fazel’s classified investigation report into Crime Intelligence, including its procurement of covert properties, had limited its ability to assess matters referred to the Inspector-General.
“We still think that it’s a serious lacuna that we have not been able to in any form view any part of that report,” she said.
The committee’s difficulty accessing the material has been a recurring issue during the inquiry. Fazel previously told the committee that his suspension and the withdrawal of his security clearance meant he no longer had access to reports he needed to prepare his evidence.
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Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia later offered to make the IGI report available under strict confidentiality conditions, but it was sent to the Speaker and referred to the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence.
Ntuli gave the DA’s submission “qualified support”, warning that it should make clear that South African law already regulates access to classified intelligence information, rather than possibly suggesting no such legal provisions exist.
Breytenbach said that mechanisms had been used to ensure the committee saw “no sight of that report, not any part of it, not redacted”.
“I’m not entirely sure that I enjoy being lectured by Honourable Ntuli about laws governing access to classified information. I was dealing with those laws, I think, before he was born,” she said.
ANC MP Khusela Sangoni-Diko immediately objected to what she said was an “extremely condescending” response to Ntuli.
“We’ve conducted ourselves in a very collegial approach during these meetings, and we find what Honourable Breytenbach said extremely offensive, and we hope that you will ask her to withdraw,” she said.
Said the MKP’s David Skosana: “Some of us have suffered, Chair. We cannot accept a condescending attitude and white privilege here. This must stop. Don’t take us like we are nothing, like your forefathers. The settlers have this attitude. Some of them don’t want to change, and it’s unacceptable,” he said.
ActionSA MP Dereleen James also called on Breytenbach to withdraw the remark.
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“Even I felt that it was condescending, and I think she needs to withdraw. We respect your knowledge. We expect your experience, but you cannot come here and just condescend people like that and make condescending statements like that,” James said.
After initially resisting a full withdrawal, Breytenbach withdrew the remark, but said the committee’s failure to see the IGI report remained a lacuna.
“If Honourable Ntuli or anybody else feels offended by the fact that I say I was dealing with the laws before Honourable Ntuli was born, I withdraw that. No problem. No offence was intended and I certainly didn’t intend to be condescending,” she said.
She did, however, object to Skosana calling her a “settler”.
“I find it exceptionally offensive for the Honourable Skosana to refer to me as a settler,” Breytenbach said.
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Committee chair Soviet Lekganyane eventually pressed Skosana to withdraw the remark.
Skosana initially challenged the characterisation of “settler” as an insult before eventually agreeing to withdraw it “for the sake of progress”.
Patriotic Alliance MP Ashley Sauls said the argument was not about being offended but about correcting what he regarded as Breytenbach’s conduct.
“We are correcting you and we’re telling you the way you sounded, how you said what you said, to an Honourable Member and a Chief of the Majority Party in this country, was arrogant and condescending,” Sauls said.
