Angelique Serrao, Lebogang Seale and Siyavuya Mzantsi
THE comfy chairs in Parliament are not exactly where you would picture forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan sitting.
But if AgangSA gets enough votes in the May 7 elections, that is where the corruption buster is destined to be.
Agang did not publicly release its candidate list after handing it over to the Independent Electoral Commission yesterday, but the Cape Times can disclose that O’Sullivan’s name appears on it.
He has more than 37 years’ experience in law enforcement and is best known for helping to convict former police chief Jackie Selebi and for his investigation of alleged mob boss Radovan Krejcir.
O’Sullivan said he received a call from someone in the party who offered him a position. He said this was followed by a meeting on Sunday with party leader Mamphela Ramphele.
“I was impressed by their approach and their manifesto,” said O’Sullivan who described the manifesto as light and doable. He said it recognised there were problems and had solutions to them.
“It was something I could identify with. They want to put hope and dignity back in the country.”
O’Sullivan said he had always been an ANC supporter, but felt the party had gone “off the path”.
“You can’t use infrastructure as a way to fix jobs if that infrastructure is accompanied by cronyism and corruption which lands up costing three times what it should have cost.”
He said if he did get to Parliament, his aim would not be to beat the ANC but rather to better the country in a constructive way. “It might give me a platform to fix the things that I have not been able to fix in my position now.”
O’Sullivan said, if possible, he would continue to run his forensic investigation practice through his investigators, but would deal only with pro bono cases.
Ramphele confirmed yesterday that O’Sullivan was among her party’s high-profile candidates for Parliament. She said this was part of Agang’s campaign to fight corruption.
Other candidates with “a legal background” named include John McConnachie, Andrew Gasnolar and Mike Tshishonga, who is a former deputy director-general of the justice department.
Ramphele said Tshishonga “fought against and exposed corruption in the liquidations industry as well as the South African justice system itself”.
“We have talented young leaders like Nyameka Mguzulo, who has come to us from the ANC Youth League, and Andrew Gasnolar, who is an admitted attorney and a World Economic Forum Global Shaper,” Ramphele said.
“We have candidates who have served their communities for years like Andries Tlouamma and Johanna Mphogo, and we have experience drawn from the corporate world in Garth Towell and from successful entrepreneurship, like Angela Pitsi.”
Ramphele took to the streets of Gugulethu and Nyanga yesterday to put up her party’s posters and to hand out flyers.
She was confident Agang would do well in the province on May 7, she said.
“The people of the province do not deserve what they get from this government. We are saying ‘enough is enough’ to corruption.
“There is no reason for people to stay in these poor conditions. Money is available, but it is not shared with the people. We need to be where people are,” Ramphele said.
Agang supporter Nombini Ngwendu said: “We know what (Ramphele) has done for us in the past and we are confident that she will change the conditions that we live under.”
Gugulethu resident Lungiswa Menzela said: “Ramphele is our hope. We are happy she is in politics because we know she will bring change.”