ANC axes chairmen of parliament committees

ANC bosses have fired four MPs as heads of parliamentary portfolio committees, including defence committee chairman Nyami Booi.

A member of the ANC national executive committee, Booi was leading the committee in its bitter fight with Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu. She refused to hand over interim reports of the National Defence Force Service Commission and the committee retaliated by refusing to process the passage of the Defence Amendment Bill.

The furore was settled by the intervention of Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, in his capacity as leader of government business in parliament, and of National Assembly Speaker Max Sisulu.

Thandi Modise, deputy secretary-general of the ANC, went to parliament yesterday to deliver the news of the axings to MPs at their last caucus meeting of the year.

She said the party was not happy with Booi's leadership.

"The committee had a number of interesting moments," she said alluding to the committee's public spats with Sisulu. "We do not wish to have this type of behaviour.

"The ANC at all costs must be one public representative party that will ensure that, at no time, at no stage, do you place the defence of this country in a situation where the soldiers' attention is deflected from what they are supposed to do," she said.

Also fired were labour committee chairman Lumka Yengeni, a member of the ANC executive and wife of influential but controversial politician Tony Yengeni, outspoken public enterprises chairman Vytjie Mentor and the little-known Hlengiwe Mgabadeli, head of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence.

Modise refused to give reasons for the axings of Yengeni and Mentor, but it is understood that Yengeni upset ANC bosses and Cosatu when she presided over public hearings on labour brokering. The government had to postpone implementing its plans for legislation that would ban labour brokers because the labour committee failed to make adequate recommendations.

Mentor's removal from the public enterprises committee might have been triggered by the fact that she is being investigated by the national legislature for asking Transnet to pay for her R150000 trip to China. She turned up, uninvited, on President Jacob Zuma's official visit in August.

Modise said Mgabadeli was failing to provide strategic leadership to the Joint Standing Committee on Defence, a constitutional structure that advises the president on defence and security.

The committee had remained silent when issues relating to low morale and poor service conditions in the army came to the fore, Modise said.

"We are not happy with the way it has functioned.

"We are therefore putting in JJ Maake, whom we think will ensure that the constitutional mandate of this committee is achieved."

Modise announced that two executive members of the ANC Youth League, Ishmael Malale and Thandile Sunduza, who joined parliament only last year, had been promoted to chair the committees on higher education and on arts and culture, respectively.

Also rising up the ranks is Eric Kholwane, ANC whip on the communications committee, who will become its chairman.

Former deputy minister of justice Johnny de Lange will take over as chairman of the water and environment committee.

Cedrick Frolick and Fatima Hajaig will move to the office of the Speaker in the National Assembly as house chairmen, and Jerry Thibedi will replace the late Alinah Ralentsoe as chairman of the ANC parliamentary caucus.