Cape Town - Another day, another drama in the Western Cape Provincial Legislature (WCPP) as the ANC submitted a strongly-worded letter asking for the DA’s deputy speaker, Beverley Schäfer, to be removed from the appeals committee, Weekend Argus can reveal.
The ANC in the Western Cape cited a conflict of interest as the reason behind its entreaty, submitted on Friday.
The appeals committee is where one can appeal a ruling made by the conduct committee.
“I wish hereby to place on record the objection of the ANC to the membership of Schäfer in the appeals Committee,” the party’s deputy chief-whip, Khalid Sayed said in the letter, seen by Weekend Argus.
He added: “Given the cloud hanging over the head of the Deputy Speaker, as per recent media reports, and that she herself is allegedly under investigation by the conduct committee... the ANC wishes to register its objection to the membership of the Deputy Speaker in the Appeals Committee and states emphatically that there is a conflict of interest, whether perceived or real.”
Weekend Argus broke the story when Schäfer was probed by the conduct committee for her role in the BMW scandal.
It probed complaints that she refused to downgrade her luxury state-funded BMW after her six-month stint as MEC ended.
Weekend Argus was also the first to report on the fact that the WCPP speaker, Masizole Mnqasela, was also being investigated by the committee.
He allegedly hired an external law firm to probe the conduct of Schäfer instead of using the WCPP’s internal legal team.
Mnqasela, whose party activities got suspended recently, was also investigated for discrepancies in the declaration of his interest in a family trust, something the committee found him guilty of. He took the decision on appeal, hence the appeals committee was brought into life.
The squabble between the duo is no secret and even made headlines when an WCPP meeting saw a tense, verbal spat between Mnqasela and Schäfer.
Schäfer said she was attending the meeting on behalf of the DA and not in her capacity as the deputy speaker – something that got Mnqasela riled-up.
Schäfer told Weekend Argus through her spokesperson, Natalie Jardine, that she is not aware of such a letter.
“We checked all our records and we are not aware of such a letter,” Jardine said.
Galil Brinkhuis, sole representative of Al Jama-ah in the WCPP, said he refused to get sucked up in the DA and ANC’s drama.
“The DA and ANC are playing politics, we are not going to get involved,” he told Weekend Argus.
“I was actually part of the conduct committee but removed myself based on the two parties playing politics ... Al Jama-ah is focusing on service delivery,” Brinkhuis said.
Weekend Argus.