Dear Editor
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will request an investigation into possible contradictions in the official declarations of interests of Deputy President Paul Mashatile about the diamond received from criminally-accused Louis Liebenberg.
While Mashatile yesterday, through his Office, attempted to side-step the serious allegation against him, his communication has both opened suspicion and a new avenue of investigation.
Mashatile’s claim that the diamond from Louis Liebenberg was given to his wife, contradicts the version of the whistleblower in this matter, in an unsigned affidavit of Hein Jooste filed in the State’s case against Liebenberg.
The whistle-blower’s version is that at the Deputy President’s residence he was made to select a diamond for Mashatile. Not his wife.
The DA will pursue this serious allegation through two investigations.
The DA will write to the Secretary to Cabinet, Ms Phindile Baleni, to request that she launches an investigation within the Presidency about this gift, the declarations that the Deputy President made at the time, and the nature of the stone received.
The DA notes that if this stone is an uncut diamond, it would be illegal for the Deputy President to have possessed it, without holding a special license for this purpose.
The DA will also write to the acting Registrar of Parliament, requesting that the Deputy President’s declaration of gifts received be reviewed and interrogated by Parliament’s Ethics Committee.
Regards
George Michalakis MP
DA Chief Whip in Parliament
Vilehero
Fun South African Fact: Three different destinations make up South Africa’s capital cities. This is to represent the South African government being divided into three sections. Cape Town is the legislative capital, Pretoria is the administrative capital and Bloemfontein is the judicial capital. Interestingly, Parliament meetings take place for six months in Cape Town and six months in Pretoria.
Gumby Train
Van is getting married, but he and his fiancee have never done the deed – in fact he\’s never been with any woman before. He\’s getting more and more nervous as the big day approaches, so he confides in his friend. His friend says \’No worries man. I\’ll come by the honeymoon suite before you guys get there, and I\’ll hide behind the curtain, and I\’ll whisper instructions to you.\’
\’You\’d do that for me?\’
\’Sure thing man!\’
So the wedding day arrives, it was a lovely service (so I was told, I wasn\’t there myself) and Van\’s friend sneaks into the honeymoon suite as promised and hides behind the curtain.
Van and his new wife arrive in the room, get settled on the bed, and things are getting steamy.
But Van is still super nervous and his tummy is bubbling, so he murmers to his wife, \’Listen babe, I\’m just gonna go to the bathroom quick. I think it\’s that wors roll from earlier.\’
\’Sure thing babe.\’
So Van goes into the bathroom, and he\’s taking quite a long time. And his wife is starting to feel the nerves herself. And it\’s getting worse. She can\’t hold it in. But she doesn\’t want to go after he\’s gone and totally ruin the mood. So she looks around and finally finds a shoebox. Quickly, she does her business in the shoebox, and she shoves it under the bed just as Van comes back from the loo.
Van gets back on the bed and they go at it again. But after a minute or so Van smells something not so lekker.
\’What\’s that smell?\’
\’Nothing babe,\’ he wife tries to assure him.
\’No man there\’s definitely something not so lekker in this room!\’VSo Van starts looking around the room, in the corners, in the cupboard, and finally he looks under the bed, and sees the shoebox.
He pull it out, and opens it up, and in horror he shouts \’Sies! Daar\’s kak in hierdie doos!\’
And from behind the curtain his friend yells, \’NEE MAN, DRAAI HAAR OM!\”