Speech by
Suzanne Vos
MP
|
National Assembly Cape Town: 22 November 2007 Ref: MOTION / Tabled by Ms S C Vos MP September 20, 2007 MS GLORIA SEROBE : SABC BOARD DEBATE MOTION: SUZANNE VOS MP (IFP) 22.11.2007 Madam Speaker, The issue with regard to Ms Gloria Serobe's interview with the Portfolio Committee on Communications for a position on the SABC Board is quite clear. It is more than obvious when one examines the verbatim transcript of her interview and her letter to Madam Speaker about this matter that Ms Serobe apparently tried to hide the fact that the person who nominated her, Mr Louis du Plooy, works for Dr Essop Pahad in the Ministry in the Presidency. He is in fact the Chief Director in the Ministry of the Presidency. The same Mr du Plooy has a box number address in Groenkloof and it was this box number that he used in his letter to Parliament nominating Ms Serobe. In her own words, Ms Serobe appears to have chosen to be devious and purported to the Committee, when asked, that she did not know Mr du Plooy at all! She NOW says that she knows the Mr Louis du Plooy who works in the Presidency but she doesn't know the same Mr du Plooy who has a Groenkloof box number! This is complete and utter nonsense and it is quite simply contemptuous of the intelligence of the Honourable Members of this House. It is this and this only, Madam Speaker, which is wrong. I submit that we cannot sanction the appointment of a person to the SABC Board who believes she can treat Parliament in this manner. I am therefore respectfully requesting that this House proceeds with appointing a Committee to conduct an investigation into whether Ms Serobe wilfully furnished the Committee with false or misleading information and in so doing committed a breach of parliamentary privilege. There was nothing wrong in law with Mr du Plooy nominating her, so why did she try to hide it? Mr du Plooy is a citizen of the Republic and could have nominated Ms Serobe and openly stated his title and his work address: Ministry in the Presidency. He chose, instead, to give a somewhat anonymous P O Box number. Conclusions can, of course, be drawn about this but this is not the nub of the matter before us today. Whether an official in an appointing authority (the Presidency) should use subterfuge to insert a candidate or candidates into a Parliamentary process can be the subject mater of an entirely different debate. At the time of her interview the Chairperson of the Communications Committee asked Ms Serobe directly in these exact words: "Who nominated you, Mr du Plooy?.....Is he in any organisation or is he just an independent person?" Ms Serobe answered: "I actually don't know" and "I never found out who that is" and finally "It was very sweet of him. I must call him or her". It is my contention - which I would like the Committee to investigate - that by saying this Ms Serobe wilfully furnished the Portfolio Committee with false or misleading information. She knew Mr du Plooy! She had spoken to him! She knew exactly who he was. Ms Serobe is now trying to say (in her letter to the Speaker) that the Chairperson referred to "a Mr du Plooy of Groenkloof" and that she does "not know" a Mr du Plooy from Groenkloof". This is sheer sophistry. It is clear in the verbatim transcript of her interview that the Chairperson DID NOT refer to a "Mr du Plooy of Groenkloof" but merely asked about "Mr du Plooy". Ms Serobe is therefore blatantly continuing her misleading conduct by adding the words "of Groenkloof" in her letter to the Speaker. She is now admitting that she was telephoned by Mr du Plooy of the Office of the Presidency asking whether she would agree to a nomination to the SABC Board. So why didn't she tell us she knew PRECISELY who this particular Mr du Plooy is? Because, Hon. Members, it would appear that she recklessly chose to mislead the Committee. And this is why the IFP believes that there is serious doubt as to her integrity. Surely, given the facts to hand, she cannot be honoured by a Statutory appointment to the SABC Board -- approved by the President of the Republic -- until this Hon. House appoints the Committee as requested and investigates her conduct. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT: |