Controversial businessman Brown Mogotsi raises security concerns ahead of testimony before Ad Hoc Committee

Parliament's legal team is working with its' security section to arrange for North West businessman Brown Mogotsi to testify after he raised concerns over security arrangements related to his appearance.

Ad Hoc Committee chairperson Soviet Lekganyane said Mogotsi's statement is nearing completion, but security issues must be resolved by Parliament's security team before any agreement can be reached.

“The report I got this morning is that the statement is about ready but there are security issues that he is raising, which the security section of Parliament must attend to.

“Once those matter are sorted they will give us a report as to whether they are able to reach an agreement or not,” said Ad Committee Chairperson Soviet Lekganyane.

Lekganyane was responding to DA MP Dianne Barnard-Kohler when she asked for clarity on whether the testimony of Mogotsi, initially scheduled for Thursday and Friday, has been rescheduled.

On Tuesday, the committee received submissions from various civil society organisations, including Accountability Now and the African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum, with the Institute for Security Studies expected to present later in the day.

The committee rejected the request from forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan request to testify virtually, electing instead to expedite the schedules of civil society representatives.

Lekganyane said the committee had decided to use its time optimally to cover all remaining work.

Although six civil society representatives were meant to appear, only three had confirmed and a decision will be made when the others will appear before the committee.

Lekganyane said the organisations and members of the public were not appearing as witnesses.

“They are appearing here to make their presentations to give the committee insight into the criminal justice system. They will share their observations, which will be enriching to the members of the committee,” he said.

“They will also make recommendations on how they think the South African criminal justice system can be improved, what are the legislative and policy interventions that may be necessary for us to have a resilient, effective, efficient and responsible and even accountable and ethical criminal justice system in the country,” added Lekganyane.

MK Party MP Sibonelo Nomvalo expressed his dismay that the committee did not hold a house keeping meeting on Monday regardng Paul O’Sullivan’s non-appearance.

“In terms of time, we are left with two weeks. We don’t want to be told at the eleventh hour that we have not done the work of this committee when we are left with no options,” he said.

ANC MP Khusela Sangoni-Diko agreed that they did not want to weaken the work of the committee but warned that they should not agree on things not provided for in the parliamentary rules.

“Parties must be allowed to make internal arrangements so that members submit apologies, when they need to,” Sangoni-Diki said.

She added that the committee had taken a clear decision to finalise its' work.

mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za