The Democratic Alliance (DA) laid a charge against Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma with Parliament’s Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests yesterday, alleging that she lied to the public to justify the ban on sales of tobacco products, according to News24.
The charge arises from Dlamini-Zuma’s claim on 29 April – buttressing the government’s about-turn on lifting the ban on the sale of cigarettes – that 2 000 public submissions supported extending the ban.
In a statement yesterday, DA chief whip Natasha Mazzone said: ‘Now it has been revealed that the minister had not even received 2 000 submissions in total, let alone that many supporting her ban.
‘The DA will therefore lodge a complaint in terms of Clause 4.1.5 of the Code of Ethical Conduct against Minister Dlamini-Zuma.’
The clause requires a member to ‘maintain public confidence and trust in the integrity of Parliament and thereby engender the respect and confidence that society needs to have in Parliament as a representative institution’.
Mazzone said: ‘The minister has a duty of care to ensure that she provides Parliament with correct information…’
The discrepancy in Dlamini-Zuma’s claim came to light after the government submitted responding papers to court in the action brought by the Fair Trade Independent Tobacco Association (FITA) challenging the ban.
FITA said that according to its count, there were 1 535 public submissions, of which 47.2% had nothing to do with cigarettes, 23.3% were in favour of the ban being lifted and 29.6% wanted the ban to remain.
Early in May, DA MP Dean Macpherson asked in a written question for information on the public submissions Dlamini-Zuma’s department had received and relied on to make changes to the regulations when the lockdown level was lowered to Level 4.
News24 reported that her answer at the time read: ‘The information requested by the Honourable Member is not readily available in the department. The information will be submitted to the Honourable Member as soon as it is available.’
At the weekend, the ANC issued a statement declaring its ‘unwavering support’ for Dlamini-Zuma, along with President Cyril Ramaphosa and health minister Zweli Mkhize.
Positive cases in South Africa rose by 1 674 to 34 357. Twenty two more deaths brought the toll to 705.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said yesterday her department had decided to delay the reopening of schools across the country until next Monday, as not all schools were at the required level of readiness.
A blanket opening of schools would have been ‘risky’.
In other virus-related news
- For the first time in almost two months, Covid-19 took second place in world headlines to ongoing violent protests across the United States over the death of George Floyd at the hands of police. The BBC noted that protests around the world over Floyd’s death ‘have not been silent – but many of them have been socially distanced’. ‘Despite widespread anger … many demonstrators did not forget the importance of stemming coronavirus while supporting Black Lives Matter. Face masks were also widely worn’;
- In England, thousands of children returned to school after the government eased lockdown restrictions;
- Many European countries are lifting restrictions further – some even opening cafes, museums and cinemas, the BBC said;
- Confirmed cases in Brazil continued to climb, however, with the tally passing half a million; and
- Worldwide cases reached 6.1 million, with 371 000 deaths.