Holomisa wants Parliament to probe CR17 donors if they are doing business with State

UDM leader Bantu Holomisa wants parliament to get to the bottom of the funders of the CR17 campaign. Picture: File

UDM leader Bantu Holomisa wants parliament to get to the bottom of the funders of the CR17 campaign. Picture: File

Published Sep 11, 2023

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United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa has called for Parliament to investigate companies that donated to the CR17 if they were doing business with the state.

Holomisa handed the Speaker of the National Assembly a list of companies that allegedly funded the CR17 campaign.

Holomisa said the removal of Busisiwe Mkhwebane was linked to her investigation of the companies that donated money to the CR17 campaign in the run-up to the ANC conference in Nasrec in 2017.

He said the reason Ramaphosa went to court to seal the records of the companies that donated to the campaign was to keep this information from the public.

The speaker, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, said she will consult the legal advisers of parliament on how to proceed with the matter.

"Earlier in the debate, the honourable Holomisa, at the end of his speech, handed to the secretariat an envelope, which appears to contain documents. As I sit here, I would not know the type of information contained in the envelope and how it was obtained. I will therefore accordingly obtain legal and procedural advice on the matter to enable me to decide what to do with the information. In doing so, I will have regard to Section 58 of the Constitution, which provides for privileges and immunities for a member," said Mapisa-Nqakula.

In his speech, Holomisa accused the African National Congress (ANC) of hounding Mkhwebane out of office because she investigated Ramaphosa in 2019.

He said some of the companies that donated to the CR17 campaign had connections with senior ANC leaders.

Holomisa said the national legislature must investigate the companies that donated to the CR17 campaign and are now doing business with the state. He said some of the ministers benefited from these companies.

He said Mkhwebane’s removal by parliament on Monday followed her probe of the funders of the campaign.

"She wrote a report on an investigation into allegations of a violation of the Executive Ethics Code through an improper relationship between the president and African Global Operations, formerly known as Bosasa. The ANC and Democratic Alliance (DA) have laid a charge against her for doing this. The evidence we have had in the Section 194 inquiry is that certain companies have donated money to the CR17 campaign. If you want to see proof of the names of the people who received payments in the CR17 saga, here it is. Read it, and you will see the relationship between these companies and senior ANC leaders and key operators. The question is why the president went to court to seal these records: to hide where these monies came from," said Holomisa.

He called for parliament to investigate the companies that funded the CR17 campaign and are doing business with the State.

Some of the money from these companies ended up in the pockets of some Cabinet ministers, said Holomisa.

Mapisa-Nqakula said after consulting with legal advisers, she will give direction on what would need to happen.