IFP says the move has taken it by surprise, as it was offered the same position last week.
Parliamentary Reporter

Cape Town - The African National Congress (ANC) will give the recently vacated chair of Parliament's public accounts committee to its new ally, the New National Party (NNP), in a move which has taken the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) the ANC's partner in government by surprise.

The position was made vacant by the resignation of IFP MP Gavin Woods, citing political interference.

The IFP said yesterday that the ANC offered it the same position last week.

"The ANC approached me personally, saying we can take all the time we want in considering whether we would like to replace Woods or not. We are surprised that they have now promised the chairmanship to the NNP it seems the left hand does not know what the right is doing," said IFP spokesman Musa Zondi.

Woods resigned last month, issuing documents that were highly critical of the official investigation into the controversial arms deal. He said the investigation was "substandard", failed to get to grips with the core issues and failed to attribute blame for irregularities in the arms acquisition process.

ANC national chairman Mosiuoa Lekota said at a media briefing in Parliament yesterday that his party needed to advance the objectives of nation building and forge stronger relations with the NNP.

The public accounts committee has over the past few months been characterised by political disputes between the opposition and the ruling ANC, brought to the fore during the heated debate on the arms deal.

Democratic Alliance (DA) chief whip Douglas Gibson said that by giving the committee's chairmanship to the NNP, the ANC had made it clear that it wanted to choose its opposition.

"Around the world in democratic countries (public accounts committees) are chaired by an opposition member. In most cases, this is a real opposition member chosen by opposition parties," he said.

"Only in SA does the governing party decide who the opposition representative should be. What a pity that (the committee) continues to be emasculated and co-opted. It is Parliament's watchdog, constituted to look after the interests of the people and to call government to account."

Lekota and NNP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk called the briefing to announce the establishment of a task team that would investigate the furthering of the deal struck between the ANC and NNP last year.

Dispelling rumours that the ANC had reneged on its promise to give the NNP a cabinet position and at least an MEC in each ANC-controlled province, Lekota said his party always lived up to its word. To prove this, the ANC had deployed people from the opposition and other parties to diplomatic missions abroad.

"The ANC is not going to treat this agreement as a contract based on the purchasing of commodities. The agreement between the two parties is not a numbers game, it is about nation building," he said.

Van Schalkwyk was confident that his party would win control of most of the 27 DA-controlled municipalities around the country. He was not perturbed by the fact that the DA would hold its first national congress next month and hence consolidate its grip on NNP members left in the DA after the NNP withdrew from the alliance.

The NNP is working around the clock trying to recruit its members from the DA. But it has to wait for the passing of legislation allowing MPs and councillors to switch parties without losing their seats.

With acknowledgements to Simphiwe Xako and Business Day.