Parliament - Cosatu has warned against the appointment of people implicated in state capture to chair key portfolio committees in Parliament.
This comes after the ANC announced on Wednesday that a number of former ministers aligned to former president Jacob Zuma were to head critical committees.
ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, however, defended the decision to appoint people who have been implicated in state capture, saying they had not been found guilty of any crime in a court of law.
In announcing the list, Magashule said former mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane would chair the transport committee, while Faith Muthambi would chair the co-operative governance committee, and Bongani Bongo was to head the home affairs committee.
Cosatu said: “The federation is not pleased that some of the chairpersons’ names have been raised at the various commissions of inquiry into state capture, etc. The ANC needs to ensure all its public representatives reflect the highest levels of integrity at all times, and that there are actually real consequences for those who misbehave. The patience of voters is not limitless.”
The DA said it was shocked by the ANC’s decision to include people implicated in state capture.
DA chief whip John Steenhuisen said the party would put forward its own candidates to challenge the nomination of the new portfolio committee chairpersons.
Magashule said the ANC had consulted on the list, and that it met with alliance partners early in the week.
He said the new committee chairs were also cleared by the ANC integrity commission.
The commission hauled 22 party leaders to appear before it after they had been flagged.
Deputy President David Mabuza refused to be sworn in as MP until he was cleared by the integrity commission.
Magashule said the people appointed to chair committees were not guilty of any wrongdoing.
“Allow the natural law of justice to take its course. They appeared before the integrity commission and the commission did not find them guilty,” said Magashule.
ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina also said the new chairs had not been convicted of any wrongdoing by the courts.
Magashule said that even when some of the people objected to the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC), before the elections in May to some of the 22 names, the IEC could not remove them from the list of candidates to Parliament because they had not been found guilty of any crime.