Parliament’s Joint Committee on Ethics and Members Interests has found that former Minister of Transport and current Member of Parliament Joe Maswanganyi “failed to understand his role as the Minister of Transport” when he failed to appoint a new board for the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) in 2017.
Maswanganyi was minister from April 2017 to February 2018 in Jacob Zuma’s cabinet. He is currently chairperson of the Standing Committee on Finance.
Complaint before the Ethics Committee
On 13 June, the ethics committee said in response to a complaint it received against the MP that it will recommend to Parliament that Maswanganyi be suspended from “his seat in all parliamentary debates and sittings, and from committee meetings and committee related functions and operations from 10 October 2023 to 1 December 2023”. Parliament must now either accept or reject this recommendation.
The committee found that Maswanganyi “failed to … act on all occasions in accordance with the public trust placed in him and … maintain public confidence and trust in the integrity of Parliament and thereby engender the respect and confidence that society needs to have in Parliament as a representative institution”.
Commuter activist organization #UniteBehind laid complaints against six MPs, including Maswanganyi, in August last year, saying that these members were involved in allowing Prasa to slide into ruin and should be held to account.
The organization also launched court proceedings against the parliamentary committee in the Western Cape High Court in April this year because of the committee’s inaction on the six implicated MPs.
Regarding the suspension of Maswanganyi, #UniteBehind director Zackie Achmat told GroundUp: “#UniteBehind accepts that this is a very small but important step”. However, Achmat said it is “not enough to achieve justice” against those MPs responsible for the “disaster at PRASA”.
Despite recommending suspension, the committee found that Maswanganyi was not in breach with regards to two other complaints laid by #UniteBehind. The first complaint relates to R79-million paid by Swifambo, a company supplying Prasa, to the ANC. The second complaint relates to “unlawful conduct” by Maswanganyi when he attempted to negotiate with China to develop the Moloto Rail Development Corridor.
Asked for comment, Maswanganyi directed GroundUp to the parliamentary spokesperson.
Parliamentary spokesperson Malatswa Molepo directed GroundUp to the committee’s report on the complaint. Presenting to the committee, Maswanganyi said that “the [Prasa] Board’s performance was marred by poor performance and faced declining revenues, governance failures and was in a weak financial position”.
The committee said in response to his presentation that he “indicated that he received the necessary induction as a minister”, that he “should have been aware that it was his duty to appoint the Prasa Board”.
The committee also said that Maswanganyi “should have appointed the Board and not use Parliament’s actions as an excuse”. Parliament had voted to dissolve the Prasa board and Maswanganyi decided that “he could not go against a decision of Parliament”.
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