African National Congress (ANC) National Chairperson Gwede Mantashe has told the State Capture Commission that in 2013, the ANC Integrity Commission looked at the possibility of asking former President Jacob Zuma to step down.
He says under the chairpersonship of the late Andrew Mlangeni, the commission eventually recommended in 2016 that Zuma must step down as the president of South Africa.
Mantashe says Zuma was called in, by the ANC Integrity commission, where the recommendation of stepping down was communicated to him.
“A recommendation was made and the former President was invited in December 2016 under the chairpersonship of Mr Mlangeni. And it says each member of the commission, in turn, outlined the reasons. Because this call for him to step down came back from 2013, but only in 2016 did they call him to a physical meeting,” says Mantashe.
VIDEO: ANC National Chairperson Gwede Mantashe and National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise testify before Commission:
Presidency
Mantashe says he does not see a reason why there should be a portfolio committee responsible for the Presidency, just because there are such committees for other government departments.
He says the President is always available to answer questions in parliament.
‘Regrettable’
Earlier, Speaker of Parliament, Thandi Modise, testified saying that it was regrettable that parliament had acted late on allegations of state capture, but Modise says the blame lies with the National Assembly House Chairperson of Committees, Cedrick Frolick.
“As I say it is regrettable that, in fact, the impression is that parliament woke up when things were bad. And for that, we must apologise to the South African public.”
Modise said it was Frolick’s responsibility to ensure that committees identified to undertake a probe, did so.
However, in his testimony to the Commission earlier this year, Frolick said he had believed it would have been improper for parliament to have a parallel investigation to that being undertaken by the Public Protector Thuli Madonsela at the time.
