Johannesburg – The chairperson of Parliament’s Section 194 inquiry, Richard Dyantyi, says he will not be forced to recuse himself from unfounded allegations against him.
Dyantyi, who was two months ago implicated in an alleged extortion bribe by suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane and her husband David Skosana in an alleged bribery attempt, says she will not step down.
Dyantyi, along with former ANC MP Tina Joemat-Pettersson and ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina, were reported to have requested a bribe of R600 000 from Skosana to make the inquiry go away.
However, Dyantyi has dismissed allegations suggesting that he was in contact with Joemat-Pettersson for the purposes of soliciting this bribe.
In response to another recusal application, Dyantyi shared his personal text messages with the late Joemat-Pettersson in an effort to show how rarely they communicated.
Last month, Mkhwebane, during a press briefing, accused Dyantyi of running a campaign against her through the Section 194 inquiry into her fitness to hold office.
In the audio recording played during the briefing, Joemat-Pettersson implicated Dyantyi in a corrupt scheme to extort money from Mkhwebane’s husband, Skosana.
Joemat-Pettersson died under mysterious circumstances after WhatsApp messages allegedly confirming the criminal act came to light. She had also implicated Majodina.
The police reported that they were also investigating the case. However, both Majodina and Dyantyi have denied the allegations on the grounds of hearsay evidence.
Dyantyi said the incomplete audio recordings she released could be interpreted as Joemat-Pettersson being offered a bribe rather than soliciting one.
He has since denied ever meeting privately with the late ANC MP during the period that she allegedly solicited a bribe on his behalf.
He said he last saw her in March during an ANC lekgotla, where he did not talk to her.
Dyantyi said his phone records would show that they rarely communicated.
Screengrabs contained in his response indicated that he also did not return an unanswered call from her.
In a WhatsApp message to him, Joemat-Pettersson requested a meeting with Dyantyi to discuss branch general meetings of the ANC, but he didn’t respond.
The last time Dyantyi said he texted her was on the eve of the bribery allegations against them that appeared in a Sunday newspaper.
He said he wanted to get clarity from her on the allegations being posed to him by a journalist.
At the time, he said Joemat-Pettersson didn’t respond, and he didn’t take it any further.
Joemat-Pettersson died a week later.
The Star