Why are Ad Hoc Committee members hesitant to call President Ramaphosa? EFF's Leigh-Ann Mathys demands answers

The EFF’s Leigh-Ann Mathys, a member of Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee investigating allegations made by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, has questioned why some members have been "scared" to have President Cyril Ramaphosa appear.

Mathys, speaking on the sidelines of Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee, shared her thoughts on the delay in issuing subpoenas for the appearance of Paul O'Sullivan and Brown Mogotsi, and the testimony of President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Mogotsi demanded that Parliament pay for his security detail before he appeared before the Ad Hoc Committee. O'Sullivan has also made requests that he appear virtually before the committee.

The committee has maintained that it will not tolerate a situation in which a witness dictates how they want to appear.

“We have been raising concerns with the Speaker (Thoko Didiza), especially on O'Sullivan, since he was sending messages to one of our witnesses. She's done nothing about it. We've been quiet.

“We've raised the issue of him being summoned because he already started sending very chatty messages and emails to our secretary of the committee. (She does) nothing.

“The fact that only after the EFF went public about how we don't know what her motives are, then the next minute she shows up here in Parliament, then the next day we have a letter. But it's been almost two months,” Mathys said.

“If she had some concerns about the legal process and Parliament being taken to court, et cetera. That matter could have been dealt with almost two months ago because there would have been time to do a security assessment.

“The CIC (Julius Malema) raised a very valid point in yesterday’s meeting on saying how can she just take both Mogotsi’s word and O'Sullivan's word that they face security risks, based on what?

“I don't know anybody who speaks very highly about them, but regardless of that, any sound-thinking Speaker, regardless of which party, would be saying, ‘okay, we need to have a security assessment’, if that is what she's concerned about, before she can decide that,” Mathys said.

“Our terms of reference are also very clear. It's at the discretion of the committee. We fought about that back and forth because we knew at some point we were going to get to this place. We were actually anticipating other people (witnesses), not this situation, but here we are.”

Mathys also said that she has been disappointed by Parliament’s administration, given how proceedings were delayed on Tuesday, due to the committee not having the necessary documents, and also witnesses not showing up when they were supposed to last week.

“It's very disappointing on the administration of Parliament, which is the GNU - the ANC and the DA. Today, you have seen the lowest level of administration that we have experienced, but the rest of it, we've just sort of been managing it behind closed doors… Last week, they couldn't even get witnesses (here), so what is it that we're doing?

“How can we hold a whole criminal justice system accountable if Parliament can't even do just basic things. The EFF cannot be part of this nonsense. We run an organisation, so there's no way we would not have proper documentation, et cetera,” Mathys said.

“It's heartbreaking that we have to be subjected to half of the things we have been (subjected to) here today.”

On the appearance of President Ramaphosa, she said, as a committee, they will send questions, and based on his response, will make a decision on how to move forward.

“My very sound-thinking CIC made the point that, in fact, he should have been the first one to come here because he's the one who instigated the Political Killings Task Team and set the record straight.

“Or maybe we should have had Lieutenant-General Mkhwanazi come and then the President after. Why are they scared to have him here? If there is absolutely nothing to hide. Like how? I was just saying to them (the ANC), they just closed ranks yesterday (in the meeting),” Mathys said.

“If you don't have anything to hide and you think you did everything legit, why do you not want to come and say to the committee, ‘this is what I did, and this was my interest’. That's it.”

theolin.tembo@inl.co.za