{"id":37401,"date":"2013-05-08T13:37:44","date_gmt":"2013-05-08T11:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=37401"},"modified":"2013-05-09T08:44:18","modified_gmt":"2013-05-09T06:44:18","slug":"pule-hearing-expected-to-take-some-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/37401\/pule-hearing-expected-to-take-some-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Pule hearing expected to take some time"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africa’s Parliament says that the hearing into allegations brought against Communications Minister, Dina Pule<\/a>, being conducted by the Ethics Committee is ongoing, with the process expected to take some time still.<\/p>\n

Parliament\u2019s joint committee on ethics and members\u2019 interests appointed a nine-member panel in March to investigate whether Pule declared her relationship with businessman\u00a0Phosane Mngqibisa<\/a>\u00a0to Parliament, and whether he made any financial gains through the alleged romance.<\/p>\n

Mngqibisa earned millions from co-ordinating the 2012\u00a0ICT Indaba<\/a>, organised by Pule\u2019s department.<\/p>\n

Parliament tweeted on Wednesday (8 May) that its hearing into allegations against minister Pule is continuing.<\/p>\n

\"Parliament<\/a>

Parliament tweet<\/p><\/div>\n

It said that at the Ethic Committee hearing, held over two days last week, five people appeared including Minister Pule, Dr Bandile Hadebe, Ms Carol Bouwer<\/a>, Mr Themba Phiri <\/a>and Mr Phosane Mngqibisa.<\/p>\n

Parlimant said that since there are personal matters under consideration, the committee is bound by the constitution and the joint rules of parliament to hold the hearing in a closed session.<\/p>\n

It noted that several additional people are scheduled to appear and the committee may need to recall others.<\/p>\n

“Once the hearing has been completed, the panel will prepare a report. The report will be for consideration by the full Joint Committee on Ethics and Members\u2019 Interests, together with recommendations,” Parliament tweeted.<\/p>\n

“The report will also be tabled in the House and will contain a summary of facts established, a finding and reasons for the finding.”<\/p>\n

“The focus of the hearing is the proper declaration of interests and the ethical conduct of a Member of Parliament,” it said.<\/p>\n

\"Parliament<\/a>

Parliament tweet<\/p><\/div>\n

Pule\u00a0said in a press briefing on 22 April 2013, that a recent series of damaging reports published in the\u00a0Sunday Times<\/a>\u00a0over the last 10 months are part of a \u201csophisticated plot\u201d to blackmail her.<\/p>\n

The reason for the blackmail, Pule alleged, is the multi-billion Rand tender \u201cand related issues\u201d for the set-top boxes needed for South Africa\u2019s migration from analogue to digital television.<\/p>\n

According to Pule, the intention was to force her to make decisions that favour the interests of certain powerful people and organisations.<\/p>\n

Pule has also rejected claims that she is romantically linked to\u00a0Mngqibisa.\u00a0In a recent radio interview, the minister said:<\/p>\n

\u201cI know him as a comrade, but I have nothing to do with him, and I am surprised that the Sunday Times wants me to take responsibility for activities of people that are happening outside, private people that I don\u2019t know, and I have to say I know him. And they don\u2019t bring a shred of evidence.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

City Press on Sunday (28 April)\u00a0reported that soccer boss Jomo Sono is at the centre of the alleged blackmail campaign against Pule.<\/p>\n

The newspaper alleged Sono\u2019s company, Jomo Sono Investments, was one of 36 companies in the running for a R2.5 billion tender to be awarded by Pule\u2019s department.<\/p>\n

More on Dina Pule<\/h3>\n

Presidency tight lipped over Pule<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Pule is lying: Sunday Times report<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Pule to be investigated by Parliament<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

He is not my boyfriend: Pule<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa’s Parliament says that the hearing into allegations brought against Communications Minister, Dina Pule, being conducted by the Ethics Committee, is ongoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":14538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[4073,1083,5797,26,3786],"class_list":["post-37401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-carol-bouwer","tag-dina-pule","tag-ethic-committee","tag-headline","tag-phosane-mngqibisa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37401"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37409,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37401\/revisions\/37409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}