Malusi Gigaba and Brian Molefe should immediately submit their resignations as Members of Parliament (MPs) to the Speaker.
They appeared before the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court on charges relating to alleged corrupt tenders with Transnet’s procurement of locomotives around 2014.
Both are charged, together with three former Transnet executives, with fraud, corruption, and violating the Public Finance Management Act as well as the Companies Act.
Gigaba is an ANC MP and co-chairperson of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence as well as a member of the Portfolio Committee on Trade, Industry and Competition.
Molefe, an MK Party MP, serves as a member of the Portfolio Committee on Electricity and Energy, the Standing Committee on Finance and the Joint Standing Committee on the Financial Management of Parliament.
The Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) also expects their respective parties to demonstrate zero tolerance for corruption and fraud by taking stringent disciplinary steps against them.
In the Freedom Front Plus’s view, corrupt individuals who loot and rob public enterprises and, in effect, taxpayers deserve no mercy. Perpetrators should face the consequences of their actions.
The party calls for the ANC’s internal step-aside rule to be applied at once. Should they be convicted, they should face parliamentary ethics processes in addition to prison sentences.
As far as Molefe is concerned, the MK Party should put its money where its mouth is by removing him as MP to show that its vehement anti-corruption rhetoric is genuine.
When inaugurated, MPs take an oath before the Chief Justice before starting their term, swearing allegiance to the Republic and the Constitution, and pledging to perform their duties to the best of their ability. This oath is a prerequisite for taking office.
The Freedom Front Plus feels that this oath and pledge are utterly disregarded and violated by the criminal conduct of certain MPs and that they should, therefore, no longer serve as members of the National Assembly (NA) or Parliament.
In the locomotive scandal, Transnet lost billions of rand through corruption. This financially crippled the entity to such an extent that state guarantees of approximately R51 billion had to be issued to enable it to fund its operations.
Corrupt public officials and politicians have plundered and paralysed South Africa’s public enterprises; such individuals have no place in our country. Stringent action should be taken against them to ensure they get the punishment they deserve.
