INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS
DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard
File photo: Cindy Waxa
Cape Town – A week after accusing DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard of misconduct and calling for her removal from Parliament’s ethics committee, the ruling party is again demanding her head.
This time the ANC in Parliament has lodged another misconduct complaint against her relating to a separate incident in November last year.
The charge was laid by ANC MP and police portfolio committee chairwoman Annelize van Wyk in a November 6 letter to house chairman Cedric Frolick.
Van Wyk’s letter, seen by Independent Newspapers, states that “a member of the committee acted unethically by releasing and misrepresenting confidential discussions of the closed meeting of the committee to the media”.
The information related to the Private Security lndustry Regulations Bill.
Kohler Barnard had released a statement about the bill on November 7.
In her report to Frolick, Van Wyk said that IFP MP Velaphi Ndlovu had requested that the meeting be closed “in order for individual members to discuss concerns pertaining to the bill”.
The request was granted.
“The member in question did not act in the good of the committee by disclosing concerns raised during a confidential meeting of the committee,” said Van Wyk.
ANC chief whip Stone Sizani’s spokesman, Moloto Mothapo, confirmed Van Wyk’s complaint on Sunday.
He said the ANC had already received a confirmation letter from the Speaker’s office about the Pule complaint.
Kohler Barnard’s first case is linked to a column in Post newspaper, written by journalist Nazareen Ebrahim, one of the DA MP’s Facebook friends.
In a statement released last week, Sizani said Ebrahim wrote that “Democratic Alliance MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard provided informative enough updates about the matter through Facebook posts”.
Sizani said Ebrahim also said that Pule “nearly ‘Puled’ the wool over Parliament’s ethics committee’s eyes”.
On Sunday Kohler Barnard dismissed both charges against her as mere “fabrications”, and vowed to take legal action.
She said it was strange that a complaint from almost a year ago was only cropping up now.
The DA MP said the complaints were just an attempt to shift focus from disgraced former communications minister Dina Pule, who was recently sanctioned by the ethics committee.
“It’s nonsense. What confidential discussion? I don’t know what you’re talking about. This is the first I’ve ever heard of it,” she said.
She accused the ANC of dragging her name through the mud “and equating me with Dina Pule”.
Kohler Barnard said Sizani’s accusations were a result of “total misinterpretation”.
“I’m even more determined to take the legal route. I have my reputation to protect,” she said.
DA chief whip Watty Watson subsequently said Sizani’s “false” accusations against Kohler Barnard were “nothing more than an attempt to draw attention away from their failure to take decisive action against Dina Pule”.
babalo.ndenze@inl.co.za
Political Bureau
