DA's Steenhuisen lays corruption complaints against Deputy President Mashatile

CAPE TOWN - Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen on Monday laid corruption complaints against Deputy President Paul Mashatile in relation to a slew of dodgy transactions over a number of years dating back to his time as a Gauteng MEC. 

Steenhuisen delivered a full charge sheet at the Cape Town Central Police Station detailing the allegations which have been investigated in a series of articles by News24. 

Steenhuisen said he’d been left little choice but to take this step after he delivered a dossier of the complaints to the Union Buildings ten days ago, urging President Cyril Ramaphosa to act against his deputy before the State of the Nation Address.

"You cannot stand before the nation at a State of the Nation Address and talk about combatting corruption and getting to the bottom of graft and eliminating state capture in the country when the very person occupying office across from you at the Union Buildings has himself got this serious cloud over his head," Steenhuisen said.

Meanwhile, Steenhuisen also laid a complaint with Parliament’s Ethics Committee, saying the allegations against Mashatile pointed to violations of the members’ ethics code.

"The DA has also submitted a formal complaint to Parliament's Joint Committee on Ethics and Members Interests for a breach of the code of conduct by Mashatile for failure to disclose registerable interests or for wilfully or negligently providing the registrar with incorrect or misleading details."