Lekota dares ministers on claims of using army

Mosiuoa Lekota. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

This follows the debate in the National Assembly last week on the shooting of striking miners at Marikana, during which Mining Minister Susan Shabangu made the accusation and was supported by Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa.

An angry Lekota asked deputy speaker Nomaindia Mfeketo to order the ministers to withdraw their remarks because soldiers were never deployed to the violent protests in Khutsong.

Mfeketo said she would study the Hansard and make a ruling.

Lekota's challenge to the ministers to repeat the accusations outside Parliament was aimed at getting them to speak without the protection of parliamentary privilege. Should they meet his challenge, they would then face the possibility of legal action for defamation.

They should know the chain of command, procedures

Susan Shabangu. (Image: GCIS)

Lekota told a news conference yesterday that both ministers should, after years in government, know that only the president, as commander-in-chief of the defence force, can deploy the military. He also said there would be a record of any such deployment in the office of the speaker of the National Assembly because the president has to report all such deployments to Parliament within seven days.

Lekota said he had written to Mfeketo asking for action on the matter and had received an acknowledgement of receipt.

Edna Molewa. (Image: GCIS)

"In the face of their continuing dishonesty and while waiting for the deputy speaker to give me redress I challenge the two ministers to take immediate steps to rectify the situation or repeat what they stated in Parliament outside of it so that I can have recourse to justice for their maliciously wounding my reputation in the manner they did," he said.

In June, Lekota was kicked out of the National Assembly for refusing to withdraw a remark that President Jacob Zuma had violated his constitutional obligations.

Lekota angered the African National Congress benches during the debate on the Presidency budget vote when he accused Zuma of failing to uphold his constitutional obligations by not protecting the rights of artist Brett Murray and City Press editor Ferial Haffajee. Murray had painted a picture of the president with his genitals exposed, and Haffajee had initially refused to remove an image of the painting from her newspaper's website.

Source: Business Day via I-Net Bridge