Cape Town – Good party secretary-general Brett Herron has urged Western Cape DA leader and MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela to resign from the provincial legislature or be fired by Premier Alan Winde for allegedly lying about his qualifications on his CV.
The Transport and Public Works MEC’s CV will come under scrutiny from the DA’s Federal Legal Commission for investigation, chairperson Helen Zille said in a statement on Wednesday.
’’The DA notes, with concern, the allegation that the CV of Bonginkosi Madikizela, the party’s Western Cape leader, claims a qualification that he does not hold.
’’The DA regards this in a serious light and will follow due process in establishing the facts and taking consequent follow-up action. The matter has been referred to the DA’s Federal Legal Commission for investigation.’’
The Daily Maverick (DM) reported that it had been trying to obtain a copy of Madikizela’s CV following a tip-off he may have falsified his qualifications.
On Monday, Madikizela told the DM he had obtained a BCom from Unisa in 1999 and later an IT diploma from the National Institute of Information Technology.
Hours later, Madikizela made an about-turn, messaging the DM to say: “I’ve noticed on my bio the (unfinished) is not on. I didn’t complete my BCom degree, I thought I should clarify that.”
Recently, acting Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka found Madikizela, who was a DA candidate for premier and is believed to be a strong contender to take over from Dan Plato as mayor, had wilfully made false and misleading statements about Herron in the provincial legislature in 2019 related to inner-city social housing projects.
Herron, who believes Winde should uphold the ethical principle that public representatives must speak the truth, told IOL on Wednesday: ’’Premier Alan Winde was instructed to act on the Public Protector’s report, which found that Madikizela had lied to parliament. Here he has been caught out lying again and if Alan Winde wants to have a government of integrity as he promised at the beginning of his term of office, he should ask Madikizela to resign or fire him.
’’The style of lying to the Daily Maverick is exactly the same as he used in the provincial parliament where he makes one claim and then comes back later to change the context, saying he meant to say it this way. In the case of his qualifications, he claimed outright that he had a degree, only to come back to the journalist and say, ’I meant to say unfinished degree’.
“There is no place for dishonourable politicians in South Africa at the moment. In the Western Cape, we have a specific promise from the premier that he would have a cabinet of integrity. His MEC has been caught out lying twice in the last two weeks. We also have to ask whether Cape Town wants that kind of person as mayor.’’
’’In selecting a cabinet, you only have to vet 10 people. The fact that you got into a provincial parliament is one thing, but when you are putting together a cabinet, there’s no excuse for not vetting 10 people.’’
In 2014, then DA chief whip John Steenhuisen had urged ANC stalwart Pallo Jordan to quit when it was discovered he had falsely claimed to have obtained a doctorate. The amended National Qualifications Framework Act makes it a criminal offence to lie about your credentials on a CV.
IOL