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A parliamentary subcommittee has recommended that Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane be found guilty of failing to declare his DA electoral sponsorships on time.
He now faces a fine and a reprimand.
Three separate sources confirmed the finding by a subcommittee of the ethics and members’ interests committee. The committee’s work takes place behind closed doors.
MPs must, before a fixed deadline each year, declare their interests, which are reflected in the register of members’ interests.
Aumsensingh Singh, co-chair of the committee, confirmed only that a subcommittee had completed its work on 15 DA and ANC MPs against whom complaints had been lodged. Their recommendations still had to be considered by the full committee. He declined to provide further details.
Responding to queries by text message, Maimane said that his legal team was dealing with “the matter”, and he could not comment.
James Selfe, chairperson of the party’s federal council, confirmed only that Maimane had received a letter from the committee and that if necessary, the DA was considering taking the issue to a legal review.
Another DA MP, Makashule Gana, who faced a similar complaint as Maimane, said on Monday that he had received correspondence from the committee, but he didn’t want to comment. He said he first wanted to go through it thoroughly, because last week his attention had been on the weekend’s registration drive.
“I will look at it and decide on a course of action,” Gana said.
Media24 understood that Maimane and Gana were unexpectedly informed of the subcommittee’s recommendation last week. Maimane was apparently informed in the letter that he could appeal the sentence.
The ANC filed the complaint against Maimane and other DA MPs in November. The charges related to them allegedly not declaring their financial interests – specifically the sponsorships they received for internal election campaigns leading up to the DA leaders’ conference last year.
Maimane said at the time that he had “nothing to hide”, but acknowledged that it was a “serious oversight” by his office and it was immediately corrected when it was discovered.
Specific amounts and the names of the donors were later submitted to the registrar.
