Legalbrief | your legal news hub Thursday 30 September 2021 State capture shadow looms large in Parliament The shadow of former President Jacob Zuma looms large in the sixth SA Parliament following yesterday’s delayed announcement of the ANC choices to head various committees, notes Legalbrief. Several former Zuma Cabinet Ministers and others implicated in state capture, either at the Zondo Commission or through the Gupta leaks e-mails, have the backing of the party, raising questions about the seriousness of the promised ‘new dawn’ by President Cyril Ramaphosa. ANC Chief Whip Pemmy Majodina and secretary-general Ace Magashule denied the list of nominations for committee chairpersons – the full list is published in a News24 report online – is the outcome of a factional balancing act. The nominations were announced yesterday after an ANC caucus meeting. MPs and former Ministers during Zuma's administration, who are seemingly resistant to rooting out state capture, will chair some committees. ‘When we approach deployment, we don't approach deployment in a factional manner,’ Majodina said. ‘Because deployed here are members of the ANC who came out of the process of the list conference,’ she added. Zuma stalwarts who will head National Assembly committees include former Communications Minister Faith Muthambi as chairperson designate for the Committee on Co-operative Governance & Traditional Affairs; Mosebenzi Zwane, the former Mineral Resources Minister, who will chair the Transport Committee; former Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson, who is set to chair the Police Committee; Bongani Bongo, as Home Affairs Committee chairperson; Sifiso Buthelezi, who will head the Appropriations Committee; Joe Maswanganyi (Standing Committee on Finance); and Supra Mahumapelo, (Tourism Committee). A Daily Maverick report notes there were significant changes made from the committee chairpersons’ list of last week, particularly after the alliance consultations, and yesterday’s announced incumbents are largely representative or at least supportive of the radical economic transformation grouping associated with Zuma and Magashule. Former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela described some of the appointments as ‘disappointing’, according to a Beeld report. ‘If you never had a spine and never upheld section 195 of the Constitution, how could you effectively oversee constitutional compliance of any department or organ of state,’ she asked. Political analyst Dr Zwelinzima Ndevu, of Stellenbosch University, says the controversial appointments take Ramaphosa’s ‘new dawn’ two steps back. ‘The message it sends out, is that he doesn’t do as he says regarding clean governance.’ More on parliamentary committees in POLICY WATCH section (below) Bongo, meanwhile, is facing the resumption of an investigation into allegations that he tried to bribe a parliamentary employee. A TimesLIVE report notes Bongo, dumped as state Security Minister in Ramaphosa’s first Cabinet reshuffle in February 2018, failed in a Western Cape High Court attempt to halt the investigation by a subcommittee of the Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests. Judge Ashley Binns-Ward said Bongo had been ‘well advised’ to abandon his application for the investigation to be scrapped. Bongo’s alternative attempt to scupper the investigation – a demand that the subcommittee had run out of time, should stop hearing evidence and submit its report – was dismissed. Binns-Ward ordered the new chair of the Home Affairs Committee to pay the costs of the eight parties he named in his application, including Parliament, the Ethics Committee and former Speaker Baleka Mbete. The subcommittee is looking into claims that Bongo tried to bribe Ntuthuzelo Vanara, the evidence leader of the parliamentary inquiry into the capture of Eskom, Transnet and Denel. In October 2017, Vanara submitted a sworn statement to the Ethics Committee that Bongo offered him a ‘blank cheque’ if he would suppress the investigation. In another Bongo matter, it seems a complaint about him to Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s office, which DA Chief Whip John Steenhuisen claims to have filed, has disappeared, notes a report in The Witness. Steenhuisen said he laid a complaint against Bongo in 2017. However, Bongo said the Public Protector’s office told him there was no such complaint. Public Protector spokesperson Oupa Segalwe said he had seen reports about the complaint in the media, but added: ‘We do not seem to have a complaint against him.’ Steenhuisen's complaint was in connection with the Vanara matter. He said received no response – except a letter of acknowledgement..