Joint ethics committee throws the book at Mosebenzi Zwane over Gupta links, travel and coal mine

It’s an unusually harsh penalty that goes beyond the usual penalties of Parliament’s code of conduct – a month’s suspension from parliamentary proceedings, a fine of no more than a month’s salary, the maximum deduction of a month’s salary and/or a reprimand in the House.

And it’s the first time a MP has been found guilty of violating public trust. ANC MP Mosebenzi Zwane “did not act with the public trust placed in him. That he did not discharge his obligations in terms of the Constitution, to Parliament and the public at large, by placing the public interests above his own interests. That he did not maintain public confidence and trust in the integrity of Parliament and thereby engender the respect and confidence that society needs to have in Parliament as a representative institution,” according to the joint committee on ethics and members’ interests report published on Wednesday.

It is the guilty findings for violating the code’s ethical conduct norms and its ban on using one’s influence as public representative for financial and business interests – “that the member (Zwane) participated in the negotiations of the sale of (Optimum coal mine) and approved the sale” – that allows the joint ethics committee to “recommend any greater sanction it deems appropriate to the House”.

In this case, suspension from the House and parliamentary proceedings for a full term.

In addition, Zwane, who vacated the transport committee chair’s post after appearing in court in late 2022 for fraud and corruption in the Vrede Dairy saga when he was Free State agriculture MEC, is fined five days’ salary for not having disclosed benefits of “travel, (a) hotel stay and being chauffeur-driven in a 7-series BMW” paid for by the Guptas. He also must apologise for a ministerial statement issued on approaching banks regarding their closing of Gutpa accounts that violated public trust and brought Parliament and Cabinet into disrepute.

It has taken almost six years to get here.

The initial complaints against Zwane were laid in June and October 2017 by DA MP James Lorimer and the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa). When the new post-May 2019 election Parliament was established, the joint committee on ethics and members’ interest, in November 2019, decided to revive and pursue the complaints. It informed Zwane of this on 21 November 2019.

In May 2022 the joint ethics committee also received the report and findings of the State Capture Commission that was scathing about Zwane, although he would not have been held to account in Parliament for matters during his term as Free State MEC, such as the R280-million Vrede Dairy project scandal.

Read in Daily Maverick: “At least two current MPs to be investigated for State Capture ethics violations” 

The complaints against Zwane involve his 2 December 2015 onward trip from Switzerland, where he met Optimum mine owner Glencore, to Dubai and India in the company of Tony Gupta and business partner Salim Essa, and that he “spent two days in India with the ‘Guptas’ before flying back to Johannesburg”, and other travel perks. 

Crucially, the complaints centre on how Zwane “had to provide approval for the sale of the Optimum Coal Mine and he also assisted with the negotiations of the sale with Tegeta. The sale of the Optimum Coal Mine to Tegeta resulted in lucrative multimillion-rand deals being awarded to Tegeta for the supply of coal to Eskom”.

Zwane’s account