Members of the Standing Committee on Public Account (SCOPA) in Parliament were left fuming after Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, failed to pitch up for a scheduled meeting. Her department’s Director General told SCOPA that the Minister could not attend due to a cabinet meeting.
Dlamini-Zuma was expected to appear before the committee as Chairperson of the Inter-Ministerial Task Team on the defaulting of municipalities that owe Eskom a total of more than R23.5 billion.
SCOPA chairperson, Mkhuleko Hlengwa reminded the DG that a letter received from the minister’s office on 20 September confirmed that she would attend, but that she would leave early.
“I would have expected that the Minister is here, that’s why we are meeting today. This ambush of her not pitching now, I want to say first of all it is not acceptable. That’s just the bottom line because, firstly, we are meeting with the Inter-Ministerial Task Team. She is not the only one there. There could have been other Ministers of the Task Team who are delegated to have come here. So I am battling to understand where there has been this U-turn because, colleagues I want to indicate further that this toing and froing began way before this meeting set in so far as correspondence is concerned. So, I am not surprised seated here at this particular revelation.”
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