Economic Freedom Front (EFF) deputy leader Floyd Shivambu has indicated that he will challenge the report of Parliament’s Ethics Committee that found him guilty of breaching the ethics code by failing to declare money he received from VBS Mutual Bank.
The EFF said the money was not from VBS, but Sgameka.
Sgameka Projects is a business owned by Shivambu's brother, Brian Shivambu.
It said this was a loan and not a donation as claimed by the committee. The EFF said that based on the fact that this was a loan, Shivambu did not have to declare it to the Registrar of Members’ Interests in parliament.
The ethics committee came to the wrong conclusion by saying this was a donation to Shivambu, it said.
Shivambu will take the report to court to challenge its findings.
“The conclusion that the deputy president received a donation that was not declared is utterly false and not a reflection of reality. The deputy president will take Parliament to to court to overturn the joint committee’s irrational and opportunistic conclusion and sanction.
“It is not in the powers of a joint committee to dispute the loans between people even when they have demonstrated beyond any sensible doubt that they had loaned each other money. Parliament’s rules do not prescribe that loans must be declared with parliament. There is therefore absolutely nothing wrong that the deputy president did, hence the legal challenge will be successful,” said the EFF.
The ethics committee had found that R180,000 was deposited into Shivambu’s account in August 2017.
This was done on three separate dates in that month. The first amount deposited into his account was R100,000, It was followed by another R50,000 on a different date and the last amount to go through was R30,000.
But the EFF insisted that this was not a donation, but a loan between the two parties and the rules of parliament do not call for members of parliament to declare loans.
The ethics committee receives declaration of financial interests by members of the national legislature every year.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co,za
Politics