Parly rejects Zweli Mkhize’s excuse not to turn up at committee meeting

Parliament bosses have rejected health minister Zweli Mkhize's excuse for snubbing the health portfolio committee and want the minister to account for the R150m Digital Vibes communications contract.

Cedric Frolick, the MP responsible for holding committee chairpersons accountable within the speakers office, said presiding officers had instructed health committee chair Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo not to allow Mkhize to hide behind a criminal case.

Mkhize told Dhlomo he received a legal opinion advising him not to appear before the health portfolio committee as he was implicated in the Digital Vibes investigation. Dhlomo's committee accepted the excuse.

The committee also allowed health director-general Dr Sandile Buthelezi to get away with not taking questions as he claimed to be under investigation.

An internal investigation ordered by Mkhize's department found irregularities with the communications tender. The Special Investigating Unit's own investigation is due to be completed later this month.

Last week Mkhize said he did not personally benefit from the tender. But Daily Maverick this week reported that Mkhize's son Dedani received R300,000 from Digital Vibes and that the company bought a bakkie that was being used on his farm. Digital Vibes is run by Mkhize's longtime associates, Tahera Mather and Naadhira Mitha.

Frolick said Friday's meeting had taken place on instruction from Modise. She wanted parliament to be seen as acting on the scandal in the health department.

Frolick said: "It's not sub judice and I've confirmed that with the parliamentary legal advisers ... I've asked the legal section to give that clarity to the committee. This case is not in front of the courts yet and there's no decisions that are pending. The minister must interact with the committee on this matter ... I want to reaffirm the principle that the minister is accountable to parliament," Frolick said.

"If the minister could make use of the opportunity to provide clarity of anything, or if he felt that there are certain issues that could impact on him directly or could incriminate him, he could have decided how he wanted to deal with it and put it to the committee. But we cannot avoid the situation of [no] accountability by the minister to parliament ... there's nothing preventing the committee from interacting with the minister on this matter."

The chair of the committee should have not entertained the issue of sub judice from an ANC MP because it does not apply.

—  Casac's Lawson Naidoo

Dhlomo said yesterday that Mkhize's absence from the committee on Friday was "not an issue".

"Whatever he was going to say was said by the [director-general] and so the meeting continued and he gave us a briefing."

Dhlomo said "there was no train smash, we heard what we were looking for, it's just that we didn't hear it from the minister".

Asked why he accepted Mkhize's excuse for not attending without discussing it with the committee, Dhlomo said: "He said he got legal advice not to appear before the committee while the SIU investigation was under way."

A senior MP privy to the discussion said parliament would "be rendered dysfunctional" if ministers and the government were not allowed to be held accountable on the basis of the reasons advanced by Mkhize and his department.

Another insider said it was unacceptable for Mkhize to refuse to discuss the Digital Vibes contract in parliament when he had held a press conference on it last Friday.

Lawson Naidoo, of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution, said Dhlomo shouldn't have accepted Mkhize's excuse.

"The chair of the committee should have not entertained the issue of sub judice from an ANC MP because it does not apply.

"Only if the disclosure of information is going to prejudice the legal or judicial process; if the information is going to be disclosed in the public interest then sub judice does not apply," said Naidoo.

Dhlomo and Mkhize enjoy a close political relationship that dates back to the anti-apartheid struggle days.

Before becoming an MP, Dhlomo served as Mkhize's health MEC when Mkhize was KwaZulu-Natal premier in 2009.

Asked if his relationship with Mkhize had influenced his handling of the matter, Dhlomo said: "If they ask me that question, I will answer them."