By Rachel Mohamed
The advocacy group UniteBehind has petitioned the courts to declare the most recent modifications to Parliament’s code of conduct unconstitutional, arguing that these modifications were made without public participation.
Speaking on VOC’s News Beat show earlier, #Unite Behind, and civil rights activist, Zackie Achmat, stated, “The first place to start is, of course, that democracy is far wider than parliament, but parliament is the most important instrument of expressing the will of the people in an open, accountable, and democratic manner that involves people.”
“As we know, the confidence that people across the world, but particularly in South Africa, the confidence that people have in parliament, in its MPs, and political parties is at the lowest point it has ever been. Therefore, it is incumbent on parliament, especially in its Ethics Committees, to uphold the highest standards of ethics.”
Achmat further highlighted that the Unite Behind campaign went to court after complaining to the Ethics Committee about six MPs, former ministers, Deputy Ministers, and chairs of parliamentary portfolio committees who were involved in state capture at PRASA that led to billions of rands wasted and as you will see from PRASA today its welcoming news that they are doing the trial runs to Chris Hani station in Khayelitsha after the entire rail throughout the country was destroyed.
“The Zondo Commission found all these people in one way or the other responsible for the corruption at PRASA.”
Listen to the full interview:
VOC News
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