The parliamentary watchdog on public finances will seek legal opinion regarding a retired police brigadier who apparently fears appearing before the public for his own safety around former Eskom CEO de Ruyter corruption allegations.
This emerged on Tuesday when the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) was meant to meet Brigadier Jaap Burger, who was assigned to meet former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter after he made allegations about corruption involving cartels, syndicates and implicated senior politicians after he commissioned an “intelligence” report.
Acting Scopa chairperson Sakhumzi Somyo said the appearance of Burger had been hanging for a while.
“I am sure you received copies of some correspondence forwarded to the committee by the Speaker recently and sometime ago with the intention of indicating that the brigadier is not prepared to come to the committee,” he told the MPs.
Somyo also said there was now correspondence suggesting the joint standing committee on intelligence should attend to the matter.
He added that Burger was disputing the explanation given by police commissioner Fannie Masemola on his non-attendance at the last meeting in June.
Somyo suggested that Scopa seek legal advice from the parliamentary legal services on the options available to them on the appearance of Burger.
DA MP Benedicta van Minnen said it was unfortunate that there was a push for the matter to be handled by the joint standing committee on intelligence.
“It is something we need to go against,” Van Minnen said.
She also said if there was any truth to allegations made by Burger about statements allegedly made by Masemola, it was a very serious matter.
“Misleading of Parliament can carry serious sanctions. We need to look at it,” Van Minnen said.
ANC MP Bheki Hadebe said even in light of Burger’s fears they were still adamant that he should appear before Scopa.
“We can have a meeting in a closed session in order for us to receive whatever information we think is outstanding.
“We need to ask ourselves, is there information that is still outstanding that we consider relevant to consider in our work,” Hadebe said.
He also said having received the intelligence report, they were on the right track.
“There are clear demonstrations that there is work under way,” he said referring to earlier presentations by the Special Investigating Unit and the Hawks on the investigations they were conducting on the intelligence report that was commissioned by De Ruyter.
Hadebe noted that they called relevant witnesses, including De Ruyter, and that the Hawks and SIU should provide them with quarterly reports.
“I don’t see a need to still pursue Brigadier Burger,” Hadebe added.
However, Hadebe said the legal opinion could assist to clarify their mandate on the issue of jurisdiction in interacting with Burger.
MP Alf Lees said Scopa previously agreed to subpoena Burger if he refused to come voluntarily.
Lees backed the proposal of seeking a legal opinion to give advice on Scopa authority on calling Burger to appear before the public finance watchdog body.
“It needs to be done. There needs to be clarity. We should not be hiding behind the screen of secrecy or security in this Parliament. This is the People’s Parliament. This is where we do things in public,” he said.
Somyo said they would encourage the Hawks and SIU to continue doing their work.
He said they would not leave the matter of Burger hanging.
“We are to be advised how to handle it. What we are not going to do is to leave the Burger matter,” Somyo said.
Cape Times