LAW PROTECTS ALL PARLY WITNESSES – PAC

MBABANE – “Every witness before Parliament who answers fully and faithfully any question put to him by Parliament shall be entitled to receive a certificate under the hand of the Speaker.”

This was an averment made by the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) MP Phila Buthelezi in Parliament yesterday. 

Buthelezi made this submission during a sitting of the PAC where debtors of the Community Poverty Reduction Fund (CPRF) were questioned as to when they would repay the money that was loaned to them and to ascertain as to why the money had not been paid back.

Buthelezi was referring to the removal of the former Clerk to Parliament Ndvuna Dlamini from office, seemingly without following the correct provisions as laid down by Section 11(3) of the Parliamentary Service Act.

The former clerk to Parliament was redeployed to the Ministry of Agriculture at a time when he had just made some allegations before the PAC about Senate President Lindiwe Dlamini. The former clerk was then replaced by Benedict Xaba. Also providing testimony before the PAC was a chauffeur to Eswatini High Commissioner to South Africa, Dumsile Sukati.

Damning

The driver of the foreign office in Pretoria, Patrick Rambau, made damning allegations against the high commissioner when giving his testimony virtually through Skype to the PAC in August last year. This was when the PAC was probing incidents that led to a government vehicle being involved in an accident in South Africa. The vehicle in question was a Mercedes Benz, which was involved in an accident while being driven by Sukati along the N4 Highway in South Africa, resulting in damages which cost the taxpayer E576 000 for repairs.

Rambau who was the official chauffeur of the high commissioner told the PAC that on the day of the accident, he was not driving the vehicle despite that diplomatic regulations stated that the high commissioner must be chauffeured.

“As the Public Accounts Committee, we have noted the concerns which were raised pertaining to two civil servants who appeared before the committee where reports revealed that there was an insinuation that their removal from their respective positions were a result of their appearance where they gave testimonies before the PAC,” Buthelezi said.

He also said as a committee, they were not privy to reasons that might have contributed to their removal from office. In this regard, he mentioned that the committee may not also directly attribute their removal from office to giving evidence before the committee. 

Buthelezi also said the matter was addressed before Parliament as it was an ongoing issue.

In that regard, Buthelezi said witnesses who gave evidence before the PAC, including government and other committees, were protected by the law and not the PAC. 

He said one of the laws was the Privileges Act of 1967 in Clause 25, Subsection 1 and 2.

Certificate

Clause 25, Subsection 1 reads, “Every witness before Parliament who answers fully and faithfully any question put to him by Parliament to its satisfaction shall be entitled to receive a certificate under the hand of the Speaker or, in the case of a committee, the chairman of the committee as the case may be, stating that such witness was upon his examination so required to answer and did so answer any such question.”

Subsection 2 further reads, “On production of such certificate in a court of law, such court shall stay any civil or criminal proceedings, except for a charge of perjury, subornation of perjury or defeating or obstructing the course of justice, or of an attempt to commit any such crime against such witness for any act or thing done by him before that time and revealed by his evidence and may in its discretion award to such witness the expenses to which he may have been put in consequence of such civil or criminal proceedings.”

However, he highlighted that there hadn’t been a request for a certificate towards the committee. He went on to say that the issue of the chauffeur was being deliberated upon by the AG’s office and other relevant structures.

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