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By Zintle Mahlati 
5h ago
Johannesburg – The Office of the Prosecutor has asked the Joint Committee on Ethics and Interests of Members of Parliament to investigate the ANC deputies who received payments from the controversial businessman Edwin Sodi.
The district attorney says members failed to report payments to Parliament, which is a violation of Parliament’s Code of Ethical Conduct and disclosure of members’ interests with respect to economic or commercial conflicts of interest.
DA MP Natasha Mazzone said the party would submit a request to the committee as it believes the ANC MPs may have violated Parliament’s code of ethics by not disclosing Sodi’s payments.
Sodi, owner of Blackhead Consulting, appeared on the Zondo commission in the state capture on Tuesday and revealed that his company had made various payments to ANC officials and government officials between 2013 and 2019.
ANC officials who received payments from Sodi included Zizi Kodwa, Thulas Nxesi, Pinky Kekana, Paul Mashatile, and Zweli Mkhize.
The payments were made while Sodi’s company had won government contracts worth millions of rand.
The businessman admitted that between 2014 and 2015 his company had invoiced more than 1,000 million rand, mainly for contracts awarded by the Department of Human Settlements.
Sodi defended the donations and told the commission that Kodwa was his friend, while he said that Kekana was like a sister to him.
He also said that he had made the payment to Kodwa, as he often helped him when he worked for the ANC and the ruling party had had problems with payments.
“Zizi is a friend. I made payments to him while he was still working at the ANC. They were payments I made as a friend where he asked for help. He said there are late payments and asked for help,” Sodi explained. .
Sodi also made payments to Pinky Kekana, the Deputy Minister of Communications, whom she described as a friend.
Other payments include R3.6m for ANC t-shirts and R6.5m paid to the ANC with reference to Zweli Mkhize, who served as its general treasurer and another payment was made to the ANC, with reference to Paul Mashatile, the current ANC treasurer. general.
Mashatile is not a member of Parliament, but Kodwa, Kekana, Mkhize and Thulas Nxesi serve as deputies.
The district attorney said he had conducted a search of the register of interests of members of Parliament and could not find evidence that members had declared payments from Sodi.
“This is in direct contravention of Section 5 of Parliament’s Code of Ethical Conduct and disclosure of members’ interests with respect to financial or commercial conflicts of interest. Section 5.1.1 clearly states that a member must” resolve any financial or commercial conflict of interest in which it participates in its capacity as public representative, in favor of the public interest; and 5.1.2 always declare said interest and, where appropriate, the Member shall abstain from any forum that it considers or decides on the import. “
“While there is little doubt that these Members of Parliament will offer all kinds of excuses to justify their dirty hands, the fact is that if their dealings with Sodi were blameless, they would have had no qualms about declaring these payments,” Mazzone said.
She said the committee was required to investigate the allegations.
Political Bureau
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