Nqakula to chair parly intelligence committee

Charles Nqakula served as police minister under former president Thabo Mbeki. File picture: Mujahid Safodien

Charles Nqakula served as police minister under former president Thabo Mbeki. File picture: Mujahid Safodien

Published May 5, 2016

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Parliament – Charles Nqakula, who served as police minister under former president Thabo Mbeki, has been appointed as chairman of Parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence, the ANC chief whip’s office announced on Thursday.

Nqakula, who was also briefly defence minister between 2008 and 2009, will replace Connie September, who will become the chairwoman of the higher education portfolio committee.

The intelligence committee, which generally meets behind closed doors, has had difficulty for a year in securing the appointment of a new inspector general of intelligence after opposition parties refused to back its preferred choice of Cecil Burgess, a hawkish former ANC MP who steered the Protection of State Information Bill through Parliament.

Moloto Mothapo, the spokesman for chief whip Jackson Mthembu, said in other changes Humphrey Maxegwana would replace Joyce Moloi-Moropa as chair of the portfolio committee on communication.

She quit amid a tense standoff with Communications Minister Faith Muthambi, citing a wish to focus full-time on her post as treasurer of the South African Communist Party.

Phillemon Mapulane will fill the chair at the portfolio committee on environmental affairs, which was recently vacated by Mthembu when he was appointed chief whip.

African News Agency

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