The DA’s federal executive has launched a disciplinary inquiry into whether its leader John Steenhuisen and its head of finance Dion George violated the party’s federal constitution by bringing the party into disrepute and undermining internal co-operation.
It also resolved at its meeting on Monday that all parties involved in the dispute must stop publicly discussing it or airing their disagreements until the inquiry by the party’s federal legal commission is finalised. The DA’s constitution provides that members who violate this warning will lose their party membership.
The dispute revolves around Steenhuisen’s removal of George as minister of forestry, fisheries and the environment late last year and his appointment of Willie Aucamp as a replacement. George and Aucamp have approached the public protector with their grievances, with Aucamp accusing George of an abuse of state resources by initiating an investigation into his alleged links with the captive lion industry and George accusing Steenhuisen of siding with Aucamp’s views on the industry.
DA vows accountability
In his complaint to the public protector George alleges that Steenhuisen had him removed from his ministerial post under false pretences. He claims that Steenhuisen unlawfully abused his power by interfering in the mandate of his department and his role as minister by instructing him to meet captive lion breeders. He also claimed that Aucamp was appointed to the position because of his links to the captive breeding and wildlife ranching industry.
Aucamp has denied any links to canned lion hunting but Steenhuisen has admitted that the first-mentioned has a publicly declared interest in a game farm.
Steenhuisen told the Sunday Times that George’s allegations were “flimsy fabrications, a gross misunderstanding of mandates and yet another attempt to seek revenge for his removal from executive office”. He denied interfering with George’s duties.
The federal executive resolved to refer to the federal legal commission for expedited investigation, allegations regarding the abuse of government resources; public communication following the submission of complaints to the public protector; the refusal of a former member of George’s ministerial staff to co-operate with the investigation and the leaking of internal financial information from the party.
Federal executive committee chair Helen Zille said in a statement that the committee had met to consider and adopt a preliminary investigation report into allegations against Steenhuisen and George conducted by the chair of the federal legal commission, Glynnis Breytenbach.
Allegations cleared
“One of the allegations the [commission] investigated was that the leader had misappropriated party funds through the use of his party-issued credit card. The report found that the expenditure on the card had been fully reconciled, that there was no prima facie evidence of misappropriation, and that the limited number of personal expenses had been adequately explained and reimbursed,” Zille said. The commission recommended that the policy on the use of party credit cards be strengthened.
“The DA takes all allegations of impropriety against its public representatives very seriously. We will continue to hold all our representatives to account for their conduct in public life,” Zille said.
“The DA is committed to following due process in the handling of internal disciplinary matters and expects party members to respect the outcome of this preliminary report and further inquiries on which future decisions of [the federal executive] will be based.”
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