Lying Politicians Should Be Fired

Brett Herron, member of the Western Cape Provincial Legislature, has reported the DA’s leader in the Western Cape, MEC Madikizela, to the Public Protector for lying to the Provincial Parliament. This is in contravention of the Executive Ethics Act and the Constitution.
The Executive Ethics Code requires Members of the Executive to “perform their duties…diligently and honestly… ; to act…in a manner that is consistent with the integrity of their office…” and prohibits any Minister from “wilfully misleading the legislature to which they are accountable”.
The Act requires any breach of the code of ethics to be investigated by the Public Protector.
Herron has requested the Public Protector to investigate the MEC for wilfully misleading the Western Cape Parliament on two occasions.
Firstly, on 23 July 2019, when Madikizela lied and said that all of the City of Cape Town’s inner city housing projects had been stopped by the courts. Although the MEC was provided with three opportunities to correct these lies by responding to written questions, his first reply feigned ignorance of the issue; he did not answer on the second occasion at all and, when the Provincial Parliament rules forced him to answer orally in October 2019, he maintained that the projects were halted by “court challenges.” Once again, this is a lie.
Last year the DA called for lying politicians to be fired from Parliament. GOOD believes this is correct.
See our full submission to the Public Protector by clicking here