{"id":8811,"date":"2013-08-09T07:05:15","date_gmt":"2013-08-09T07:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=8811"},"modified":"2013-08-12T08:49:03","modified_gmt":"2013-08-12T08:49:03","slug":"white-anc-member-receives-death-threats-after-pule-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=8811","title":{"rendered":"White ANC member receives death threats after Pule investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ben<\/a>
Ben Turok<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The chairman and registrar of parliament\u2019s joint portfolio committee on ethics and members\u2019 interests say they received death threats while conducting their investigation into the conduct of former communications minister Dina Pule.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, a multiparty panel appointed by the committee released its report, which paints a damning picture of the former minister\u2019s behaviour. She was sacked from president Jacob Zuma\u2019s cabinet last month.<\/p>\n

The committee recommended further investigation by the police and the National Prosecuting Authority.<\/p>\n

The panel\u2019s report has revealed that during the investigations, committee co-chair and ANC MP Ben Turok and committee registrar Fazela Mahomed were alerted to threats of harm against them.<\/p>\n

According to Turok, Pule\u2019s partner, businessman Phosane Mngqibisa \u2014 who the committee found benefited improperly from last year\u2019s ICT Indaba organised by the department of communications \u2014 was accompanied by a bodyguard to one of the early hearings.<\/p>\n

Although the bodyguard was made to wait outside the room where the hearings were taking place, his mere presence was against parliamentary protocol, Turok says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis man stood outside the room in which we were having our hearings, but strictly speaking he should not have been allowed in parliament at all. I don\u2019t know what pretext he came in under, or if he was armed, but as committee chair I was told he was outside the door and I was told he was the bodyguard of a witness, Mr Mngqibisa.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were unhappy about that, but we were so busy with the investigation that we didn\u2019t follow it up. So when this other thing pops up, we link one and two,\u201d Turok says. \u201cThere\u2019s something unsavoury about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

TechCentral was unable to reach Mngqibisa on his mobile phone on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe police have been involved at quite a high level and the speaker of parliament knows about it,\u201d Turok says. \u201cWe expect that someone will be investigating the basis for all of this, but it has been taken quite seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds that he is less concerned about his personal safety and far more about the threat of interference with the \u201clegitimate processes\u201d of parliament. \u201cAny threat to disrupt a formal procedure in parliament is to be examined very carefully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turok and Mahomed continue to be accompanied by members of the parliamentary protection service.<\/p>\n

He says the South African Police Service in the Western Cape branch is also involved in the matter.<\/p>\n

“A threat was received through a certain person, that they would try to stop the investigation and the report,” said Turok.<\/p>\n

He said certain witnesses were also threatened and some tried to change their evidence.<\/p>\n

The death threats were reported to the national VIP unit, and both Turok and Mahomed were provided with two security personnel each. Turok was told not to trust his food as it could be poisoned and warned never to be alone.<\/p>\n

Turok said the matter was reported to the speaker of the national assembly Max Sisulu, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa and to police commissioner Riah Phiyega because the protection services felt it was an attack on Parliament.<\/p>\n

Turok suspects that a person or people mentioned in the report had felt threatened and wanted to stop the report from being published.<\/p>\n

“Well, they are late now. It’s been tabled to Parliament and it is a public document now.”<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Parliament’s joint committee on ethics and members interests found Pule guilty of breaching the code of conduct for MPs\u00a0and recommended maximum penalties allowed by the rules,\u00a0which include a reprimand by the speaker of the National Assembly during a sitting of the House, a fine of an equivalent of 30 days’ salary, a suspension of her privileges for 15 days and an exclusion from any parliamentary debates or committees during that period.<\/p>\n

Turok told journalists that the committee would have given her more severe penalties but it was limited by the rules of Parliament.<\/p>\n

Last month\u00a0President Jacob Zuma dismissed Pule, who had been dogged by controversy for months over allegations of funnelling contracts and government resources to her boyfriend, Phosane Mngqibisa,\u00a0during the controversial Information and Communication Technology Indaba.<\/p>\n

“As a result of lengthy and detailed investigations, the panel found that Mr Mngqibisa was the de facto permanent companion or spouse to Pule,” found a seven-member panel which was appointed by the ethics committee to investigate the matter.<\/p>\n

“Through that relationship, he was able to obtain government funding for overseas trips and participate in official meetings despite having no formal department role in respect thereof.<\/p>\n

“He was further able to obtain financial benefits for himself and his company Khemano as a result of his relationship with Pule,” found the panel.<\/p>\n

The panel said\u00a0Pule wilfully misled them and that several officials of the department may have committed perjury in their evidence and colluded with her. – 2013 NewsCentral Medi\/ M&G<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The chairman and registrar of parliament\u2019s joint portfolio committee on ethics and members\u2019 interests say they received death threats while conducting their investigation into the conduct of former communications minister Dina Pule. On Wednesday, a multiparty panel appointed by the committee released its report, which paints a damning picture of the former minister\u2019s behaviour. She … Continue reading “White ANC member receives death threats after Pule investigation”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[4929,3310,3834],"class_list":["post-8811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-south-africa","tag-ben-turok","tag-death-threats","tag-dina-pule"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/benturok.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8811"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8950,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8811\/revisions\/8950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}