Cape Town - The political storm faced by the Western Cape Legislature’s speaker, Masizole Mnqasela, has been intensified by claims that he “tapped” the phone of his deputy, Weekend Argus can reveal.
This comes on the back of several corruption allegations levelled against him.
Deputy speaker, Beverley Schäfer, whom Mnqasela levelled a complaint against, is according to highly-placed sources, now accusing the speaker of hacking into her phone.
“Every time I receive a message that has to do with Masizole my phone switches off or overheats,” Schäfer told the insiders.
“He tapped into my phone, please do something about it,” she allegedly said.
The sources alleged that their phones were also targeted.
“We went to the police to open a case but there was insufficient evidence to open the case,” one of the two sources told Weekend Argus.
Schäfer’s spokesperson Natalie Jardine said she couldn’t confirm nor deny that the deputy speaker believed her phone was “tapped” by Mnqasela.
Mnqasela did not respond to queries on the latest allegation.
Back in May, Weekend Argus reported that Mnqasela asked the Legislature’s registrar to probe Schäfer for misconduct after she refused to downgrade her luxury BMW SUV.
The registrar in turn referred the matter to the legislature’s conduct committee.
The probe has been ongoing for months and was postponed on Friday again.
Mnqasela is also being investigated by the committee for failing to disclose his interests in a family trust.
Friday’s conduct committee meeting would have focused on Mnqasela’s testimony after the sitting he was originally asked to testify at descended into chaos earlier this month.
The fireworks reportedly erupted after Schäfer wanted to be represented by an external lawyer.
“She wanted to bring a legal representative there, like a lawyer... they then told her she’s not allowed to do that,” a highly-placed source said.
“They said: ‘You can’t do that. This is a parliamentary process. You’re not allowed to do that’.
“They agreed that she can bring another (MPL) to represent her,” the source said.
This member happened to be MEC for Mobility, Daylin Mitchell.
In a bizarre twist of events, Mitchell reportedly started to “threaten” them.
“He said this whole process lacks legitimacy and this can be taken to court,” another source said, adding that Mitchell stated the process was flawed and that Schäfer is being victimised.
When the committee wrapped up its testimony from Schäfer’s side, it started to call the first witness, which happened to be Mnqasela.
“Masizole then left the proceedings, saying he has other commitments as he only dedicated half an hour for this,” Weekend Argus was told.
But he was still not ready on Friday.
Earlier this week, the DA’s Federal Executive (FedEx) accepted the Federal Legal Council’s recommendations to charge Mnqasela with misconduct.
This stemmed from protected disclosures by whistle-blowers alleging fraud and/or corruption relating to subsistence, travel and entertainment allowance claims by Mnqasela.
One of the travel claims that forms part of the DA’s investigation included his recent trip to Sierra Leone, Weekend Argus was told.
The Hawks is also investigating allegations of fraud relating to travel claims.
FedEx will sit again on Monday where Mnqasela’s future is expected to be on the agenda.
Earlier this week, opposition parties in the chamber discussed the need for the urgent conclusion to the code of conduct investigations into the speaker and his deputy.
Weekend Argus