Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula is heading for Switzerland to attend an international meeting of parliamentarians despite reports earlier she was facing arrest.
Parliament said on Thursday Mapisa-Nqakula was to lead a delegation of senior officials from Parliament and will be out of the country for a few days.
The meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) will start on March 23 and ends on March 27.
The Democratic Alliance said it welcomed reports that the speaker was facing imminent arrest.
DA chief whip Siviwe Gwarube said law enforcement agencies must act swiftly against her.
But Parliament said Mapisa-Nqakula will be joined by deputy chairperson of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) Sylvia Lucas, Secretary to Parliament Xolile George and NCOP chief whip Seiso Mohai on the trip to Europe.
Members of some parties will also be part of the delegation.
“The parliamentary delegation will participate in various meetings of the Standing Committees and related meetings, including a meeting on March 22 of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Africa Geopolitical Group. Members of the delegation will also participate in the peace and international security, sustainable development democracy and human rights, and United Nations Affairs Committees,” said Parliament.
Mapisa-Nqakula will also participate in a session on the conflict resolution in Ukraine.
“Other scheduled meetings include those of various IPU parliamentary bodies on conflict situations such as the IPU task force for the peaceful resolution of the war in Ukraine, which will be addressed by the parliamentarians from both the Russian Federation and Ukraine separately.
“The task force, whose objective is to explore parliamentary contributions to efforts to end the war, is made up of eight prominent parliamentarians from around the world. It also acts as a shuttle for information exchange between the two parliaments. Speaker Mapisa-Nqakula is a member of the task force,” said parliament.
The parliamentarians will also discuss the conflict in Gaza and other parts of the world.
The trip by Mapisa-Nqakula comes a few days after the National Prosecuting Authority’s Investigating Directorate (ID) raided her home in Bruma, Johannesburg.
Mapisa-Nqakula has maintained her innocence in the corruption saga. This followed allegations of corruption against her that she received bribes to the amount of R2.3 million from one of the service providers in the department of defence.
At the time of the alleged bribery Mapisa-Nqakula was minister of defence. She left the department after she was appointed Speaker in 2021.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
IOL Politics