Dipuo Peters has been suspended. (Papi Morake/Gallo Images)
- President Cyril Ramaphosa has suspended his Deputy Minister of Small Business Development Dipuo Peters.
- According to the Presidency, Ramaphosa had informed Peters of his decision to suspend her.
- The head of state’s decision follows a sanction adopted by Parliament’s Joint Committee on Ethics and Members Interests against Peters.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has suspended under-fire Deputy Minister of Small Business Development Dipuo Peters.
On Friday, the Presidency confirmed that Ramaphosa had informed Peters of his decision to suspend her.
“The decision follows a sanction adopted by Parliament’s Joint Committee on Ethics and Members Interests against the deputy minister,” the Presidency said in a statement.
“The committee found that Peters had breached the Code of Ethical Conduct in her former portfolio as minister of transport. Consequently, Ms Peters was sanctioned and suspended for one term.”
Peters’ suspension, which will be without pay, became effective on 28 February and will end on 28 March.
In November 2023, Peters was suspended from her seat in all parliamentary debates, sittings, committee meetings, functions and operations for one term of the parliamentary programme.
The former transport minister’s salary was not docked.
READ | Ex-transport minister Dipuo Peters suspended from parliamentary activities for state capture breaches
The complaints against her were laid by activists Zackie Achmat – who intends to run as an independent candidate in this year’s elections – Zukiswa Fokazi, and non-profit organisation #UniteBehind in September 2022 following the release of the Zondo Commission’s report.
Some of the complaints against Peters were:
- She was neglectful in her previous portfolio as minister of transport by failing to appoint a group CEO for Prasa.
- Peters dismissed the Prasa board chaired by Popo Molefe seemingly because it had uncovered R14 billion in irregular expenditure and instituted investigations into corruption at Prasa. The High Court found her conduct was irrational, unreasonable, and unlawful.
- Peters also attempted to stop the investigations into corruption at Prasa that were initiated by the Molefe board.
- “That the member [Peters] failed to investigate the allegation of the R79 million of Prasa money paid by Swifambo to other people for alleged distribution to the African National Congress. The member was under a duty to ensure that corruption was rooted out from public entities.”
- Peters used Prasa buses for ANC events in 2014 and 2015 without ensuring payment from the party.
Turning to the courts in January, Peters has failed in her urgent bid to block her suspension from Parliament, imposed last year as censure for state capture breaches while she was the minister of transport.
Western Cape High Court Acting Judge Mushahida Adhikari said neither her urgent application nor her intended review of the decision had any merit and would effectively result in Peters serving no sanction, which would be a breach of the separation of powers, GroundUp reported.
The judge dismissed the entire application (the urgent interdict and the pending review), ordering Peters to pay the legal costs of #UniteBehind and the speaker of the National Assembly, which had both opposed her application.
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