EDITORIAL: Is Parliament captured too?
‘Inquiry will be far more complicated and lengthier than the SABC inquiry’
It is an obscenity that Parliament has not provided an experienced advocate as evidence leader for the inquiry into the capture of state-owned enterprises by the portfolio committee on public enterprises. In terms of the Constitution, Parliament must be granted the resources to conduct its oversight role, and the case for oversight of the state-owned companies has never been stronger, not least because there is overwhelming prima facie evidence of their capture. Parliament does employ an experienced evidence leader, one Ntuthuzelo Vanara, who famously fulfilled that role in the ad hoc inquiry into the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). That bit of oversight was what led to the ultimate dissolution of the public broadcaster’s board and the removal of the intractable Hlaudi Motsoeneng as chief operating officer. Vanara, however, is not available for the public enterprises committee’s inquiry and Parliament’s chief legal adviser, Zuraya Adhikarie, counsels against hiring ou...
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