The acting secretary of South Africa's parliament, Penelope Tyawa, has now apparently joined parliament's speaker, Baleka Mbete, with both who are conspiring to keep the South African public uninformed and the country's TV industry in the dark, refusing to release a report publicly stating which people who testified in parliament in December 2016 lied to the SABC Inquiry.
After a thorough, special ad hoc committee inquiry in December 2016 and January 2017 into maladministration, corruption and mismanagement at the beleaguered SABC and the dealings of the mafia-like former SABC board, parliament's legal services unit handed a report to speaker Baleka Mbete, naming the witnesses who gave contradictory and misleading evidence during the SABC inquiry.
So far Baleka Mbete has refused to make this report public with information that South African citizens, the TV industry and TV viewers who are forced to pay SABC TV licence fees to a public broadcaster, have a right to know in an open democracy.
Despite an application made on 20 June by the Democratic Alliance (DA) political party's deputy whip, Mike Waters who served on the ad hoc committee, in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) to get access to this report, Penelope Tyawa, has now also refused.
"The report was one of the key recommendations of the SABC inquiry report. Significantly, it was to be completed within 60 days with the aim of criminal charges being laid," says Mike Waters, in a statement.
On Wednesday Penelope Tyawa told Mike Waters that the report "would be made available by the end of August or soon thereafter".
Mike Waters says Penelope Tyawa "has joined the Speaker of the National Assembly in trying to keep the report into those who lied during the SABC inquiry from public scrutiny".
"This reasoning is laughable as parliament's legal services unit completed the report and submitted it to parliament on 5 June 2017 through its representative, the National Assembly speaker.
"It is now precisely the representative of parliament, Baleka Mbete, who is protecting the persons implicated in the report by refusing to table it, which she is required to do 'without delay' ".
In a statement from South Africa's parliament on late Thursday, parliament said that "the speaker is in no position to disclose the names of the affected individuals publicly before a committee process has begun".
"Any insinuation that the speaker seeks to quash a parliamentary probe into these allegations is erroneous and without basis."
People who likely lied during the SABC Inquiry include:
the failed former minister of communications, Faith Muthambi, recently shunted to another ministry;
the disgraced former SABC chairperson Ellen Tshabalala who also lied about tertiary qualifications she doesn't have;
the confused and stubborn former SABC chairperson Mbulaheni Maguvhe who was staunch Hlaudi Motsoeneng supporter;
and the patriarchal former SABC chairperson Ben Ngubane who of course doesn't fly economy.
