Parliament’s ethics commissar, Fezela Nahomed, has resigned after a court finding that she violated the very ethical code she was supposed to enforce.
Mahomed, whose official title was registrar of members’ interests and secretary to the parliamentary joint standing committee on ethics and members’ interests, has come under increasing fire for pro-ANC bias and for bring appointed irregularly, but has always been stoutly defended by the ANC.
Last week, however, the Western Cape High Court ruled that she and the two ANC co-chairs of the ethics committee, Amos Masondo and Omie Singh, were themselves so in breach of the code they were supposed to uphold in how they tried to prosecute three DA MPs that they are not allowed to handle that specific case again.
The three MPs concerned were Archie Figlan, Makashule Gana and DA leader Mmusi Maimane, on different issues.
Furthermore, Mahomed has been ethics commissar since 1998, despite the fact that the parliamentary rules clearly state that the registrar of members’ interests must be newly appointed after every election and only after consultation with the leaders of all political parties with parliamentary representation.
DA chief whip John Sttenhuisen said he was delighted with Mahomed’s resignation.
“Her position became untenable after last week’s court hearing. She was biased, she smeared the careers of opposition politicians and her appointment was irregular anyway.
“I shall now be opening a case of fruitless expenditure against her for the legal costs she incurred. The tax payer had to pay the costs for the court to state the blatantly obvious.”
Parliamentary spokesman Luzuko Jacobs was unaware of her resignation when contacted this afternoon, and therefore could not comment.
He later denied that Mahomed had resigned, but TMG Digital has seen written confirmation by Mahomed that she has resigned.
- TMG Digital
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