Cape Town - The ANC in the Western Cape provincial legislature has called for an investigation into DA chief whip Mark Wiley for interfering in the work of the legislature.
Wiley raised the ire of the opposition party when he intervened and effectively blocked the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) from discussing a school construction crisis, which affected 1 200 pupils at the Scottsdene Senior Secondary in Kraaifontein.
ANC MPL Siyazi Tyamtyam, during a sitting of the provincial legislature last week, brought a motion with notice that the house appoints an ad hoc committee to investigate and report to the assembly on whether Whip was overstepping his competencies by ruling and running the legislature beyond his portfolio.
Scopa was to be briefed on allegations of shoddy construction work done at Scottsdene, but the item was scrapped from the agenda after Wiley objected, insisting that Scopa did not follow due process and that the matter be referred back to the relevant Public Works standing committee.
Despite objections from the ANC, ACDP and the EFF, the DA used its majority vote to strike the issue from the agenda.
Tyamtyam accused Wiley of interfering with the administration, micromanaging everyone while dictating to others, “even when he is wrong” and contravening his role in the legislature.
Hitting back, Wiley said as far as the ANC motion was concerned, he took the “criticism from whence it came”.
“This from a ruling party that the previous day rammed through a motion relating to Nkandla in the National Assembly and which goes to the heart of how this country is governed by a party where the Rule of Law, Constitutionalism and democratic rights are simply ignored and abused on a regular basis,” he said.
According to Tyamtyam, Wiley did not trust his own caucus members and “superseded their work” on almost all committees, stifling them from taking part freely in proceedings and suppressing the democratic process.
ANC MPL Carol Beerwinkel also ripped into Wiley, saying it had become an “untenable situation” and needed to be stopped immediately.
“These military ambush tactics utilised by the chief whip of this house on the pretext of process and procedure, smacks of abuse of power and authoritarian steamrolling of events and processes, stifling debate which normally ends in a vote to determine a result,” she said.
Beerwinkel said the specific meeting agenda was put to programming authority, of which Wiley is the chairman, approved and distributed to all members the previous day.
“Of course he has the right to attend any meeting but the norm is that when he does it’s because he doesn’t trust his own members to play their oversight role or he comes to antagonistically sour the atmosphere,” she said.
Quoting from the rules governing Scopa, Beerwinkel said: “The committee on Public Accounts may initiate any investigation in its area of competence, which may deals with financial statements; audit reports, the auditor general reports on any organ of state, or any other financial reports referred to it by the house.”
Beerwinkel added that the rules did not stipulate which financial year had to be probed.
“Therefore for any school to be standing, it means that there was a financial statement; AG report, audit report at least before Scopa in a previous financial year.
“They were referred by the speaker and based on that Scopa has every right to have the matter of the Scottsdene Secondary School crisis on the agenda because it was about to address the issue of possible fruitless and wasteful expenditure,” she said.
Responding to the ANC, Wiley said: “The positions I take are based on the laws and rules that govern us daily and in the House. In the case of the recent Scopa issue my argument was fully corroborated by the deputy speaker who made the effort to come to the House and confirm my standpoint by quoting the rules on the matter.
“The item should simply have fallen off the agenda as a result but the chair put it to the vote.”
Wiley said his argument was that consistency in decisions be maintained.
He said DA members on the committee did not object to the agenda item because they were not aware of the previous history nor the agreed route of handling these sorts of requests.
“It is a pity that the opposition did not take my offer to amend my motion to refer the matter to the Public Works committee and add ‘as a matter of urgency’, which I would have supported, which rather shows how hollow their ‘concern’ was.”
Cape Argus