Times Of Swaziland: MPS’ ACC PROBE STOPPED

MPS’ ACC PROBE STOPPED
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 BY NTOMBI MHLONGO on 16/05/2018 04:30:00


MBABANE – Will the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) conduct the investigation
of the ACC as per the wishes of Members of Parliament (MPs)?
Members of the Parliamentary Committee which was tasked with probing the ACC,
are filled with both bitterness and worry.
This comes after a resolution was taken at the House of Assembly on Monday, that
they should stop their investigation and hand it over to the Chief Justice Bheki
Maphalala’s office, so that it could be dealt with by the JSC.
ACC is an acronym for the Anti-Corruption Commission, whose administration was
questioned by MPs early this year, which led to a motion and selection of a
committee to probe it.
The resolution was taken after the MPs were engaged in a secret caucus where
they were informed that Cabinet had decided that the probe team should hand over
the work to the JSC.
It has been alleged that the MPs were told that the ACC was under the Judiciary,
and that an investigation into how it was administered should be done by the
JSC.
This is said to have infuriated the MPs who allegedly argued that stopping the
probe team would destroy the country.
Some of the members who were called by this newspaper, confirmed that they had
been stopped and were unhappy but that it was the responsibility of the Speaker,
Themba Msibi, to share the exact reason.
“Yes we can confirm that we have stopped with the probe but it is not our
responsibility to talk about the resolution. All we can say is that we are
bitter as we believe we should have been given the opportunity to complete what
we started,” said Nkwene MP Sikhumbuzo Dlamini.
Mtfongwaneni MP Mjuluko Dlamini stated that he was not the right person to
comment but said it was obvious that they were not happy with the resolution.
“Since the probe has been redirected to the JSC, the worry is that we are
about to leave Parliament, so what if it dies a natural death? We are sure that
we were going to do the whole investigation and complete it fast,” MP Mjuluko
said.
Another MP who asked not to be named, said he was bitter because the resolution
was going to put the country in bad light.
“What will the international organisations say when Parliament is stopped when
it tries to root out corruption? This is sad but we hope the nation knows that
we were doing our job as MPs but in the end, it turned out that we have no
power,” said the MP.