Parliament has reprimanded Deputy Minister in the Presidency Pinky Kekana for failing to declare the R170 000 she received from controversial businessman Edwin Sodi, who is at the centre of the Free State asbestos project scandal.
She was censured during the National Assembly’s plenary sitting on Wednesday.
This follows the adoption by the National Assembly of the report of its joint committee on ethics and members’ interests.
The committee’s report recommended that Kekana be reprimanded in the House after she was found to have breached the code which requires her to declare financial benefits to Parliament.
The deputy minister was investigated by the committee after she was implicated in the Zondo Commission report in relation to the Free State asbestos project.
In the audit of transactions, it was found that she had received two payments – one in 2015 and another in 2017.
“The Speaker of the National Assembly referred to the ethics committee to process a matter that concerned part 4, volume 2 of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into State Capture Report, which focused on the Free State asbestos project and R1 billion housing project debacles,” a statement released by Parliament on Wednesday night said.
“The commission’s report highlighted that Ms Kekana received R170 000 from Blackhead Diamond Hill Joint Venture, through Mr Sodi, without clear evidence that she had provided any goods and/or services to justify the payment. Ms Kekana acknowledged that she did receive the money.”
Kekana asked the committee to keep confidential the reasons for receiving the money.
Sodi is facing charges in the asbestos matter alongside former Free State premier and suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magahule.
The other accused in the case are Nthimotse Mokhesi, Mahlomola Matlakala, Sello Radebe, Kgotso Manyeki, Sarah Mlamleli, Nozipho Molikoe, Albertus Venter, Moroadi Cholota and Margaret-Ann Deidericks.
They are facing charges of fraud, corruption, money laundering and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act.
The charges relate to a R255-million contract that was awarded by the Free State Department of Human Settlements to the Blackhead Diamond Hill Joint Venture to audit, assess and remove asbestos from houses in some of the province’s poorest areas, about six years ago. – Staff Reporter