DA's Masizole Mnqasela maintains his innocence following suspension from party activities

Speaker of the Western Cape legislature, Masizole Mnqasela maintains his innocence after the DA suspended him from all party activities this weekend pending an investigation into his travel claims.

“I remain alleged perpetrator. I am not a criminal, I am not a thief,” Mnqasela told journalists on Sunday.

“Thieves might look like me, I am not one of them. Thieves like we have seen in this country can only be defined as thieves if the court finds them guilty,” he said.

The DA’s Western Cape chairperson Jaco Londt said on Saturday the decision to suspend Mnqasela from party activities was based on the findings of an investigation report by the federal legal commission that there is sufficient credibility in the allegations against him.

“Mr Mnqasela was given an opportunity to provide reasons why he should not be suspended, which he did. After careful consideration, the Party decided to move to suspension,” said Londt.

Mnqasela is not suspended from his position as the speaker.

Last week, the DA said it had handed documents “containing protected disclosures by whistle-blowers alleging fraud and or corruption relating to subsistence, travel and entertainment allowance claims” by Mnqasela to the Hawks.

“I’ve always maintained my innocence and I continue to do so. And I am convinced that in the end I will be vindicated. I will not be found guilty, I know so because I know my innocence,” he said.

“I grew up very poor but my parents taught me one thing: that you must not steal and I will not start at this age,” said an emotional Mnqasela.

He said the allegations against him have also taken a toll on his family.

“This has not been very easy to my family, it has been very emotional. You can do anything to me but don’t touch my family and that hurts me very deeply.

“Politics can be politics but they must not get to a point of being personal in trying to destroy one’s character.”

Asked whether his family had been threatened, he blamed unfair media reporting for the outburst.

“The media, the reporting in the public, it’s reporting about a criminal and nobody says I appeared in this court and I was found guilty in this court but the reporting talks about a corrupt man who happens to be a speaker of parliament.

“What do you then say as a child that you go out of your home, go to school and your father is that corrupt man, he’s a thief. It will never be easy,” he said.

Mnqasela said as a disciplined member of the DA, he welcomed the decision to suspend him from party activities, adding that: “My blood is blue, in fact it is royal blue”.

He was also happy that his party understands the separation between party and state and observed that doctrine.

“I will not comment on the merits of the litany of allegations levelled against me. I’ve been saying that they are baseless and I will not be found guilty subject to the allegations themselves.”

Mnqasela called for both his rights and those of whistle-blowers against him to be respected.

“The rights of the alleged whistle-blowers must be protected in the same manner the accused, myself in this case, must be equally protected, and nobody should interfere with the whistle-blowers. I think that is very important.

“I’m not in the streets. I don’t use street rules, I use the rules that are informed by our constitution,” he said.

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