ANC files complaint against Premier Winde over undisclosed travel donation

The ANC in the Western Cape has formally approached the Public Protector over Premier Alan Winde’s disclosure of a R51 000 travel donation linked to his trip to New York for Climate Week in September last year.

Leader of the Opposition Khalid Sayed handed over the complaint at the Public Protector’s Western Cape office in Wale Street on Wednesday morning, acting on behalf of the ANC caucus.

Sayed said the caucus believes Winde failed to properly declare that the Under2Coalition funded his flights. “We believe and evidence shows that the premier has failed to disclose a R51 000 donation that he received from the Under2Coalition, an external non-governmental entity to attend the climate week in New York in September last year. That R51 000 was for his flights,” he said.

He stressed that the issue was not the donation itself, but the rules governing disclosure. “We don’t have a problem with him receiving this R51 000 but the rules of the legislature and the code of members’ ethics is very strict.”

Sayed said the ANC had first taken the matter through the legislature by submitting a complaint to the registrar. “We followed the parliamentary process and submitted a complaint to the registrar for the conduct committee,” he said.

He added that they escalated the matter because “the Executive Members Ethics Code (EMEC) requires that to investigate alleged breaches and report them to the president. We are hopeful that they will be reported to the president and that the necessary sanction is imposed.”

He rejected claims that the move was politically motivated. “We aren’t doing this to play petty politics and score cheap political points against the DA or the Premier. This is to ensure transparency and accountability in the Western Cape.”

Sayed said the ANC flagged the issue during the provincial legislature’s last sitting two weeks ago. He said Winde argued that he had disclosed the donation when the Department of the Premier presented its annual report. Sayed disputes that this meets the requirements.

“That is actually the problem because that is where we discovered it. We were analysing the annual report in the build-up to the annual report period last month. We saw that he had, indeed, disclosed it in the annual report but that’s not really disclosure. The disclosure should have come before the end of April to the registrar in the Western Cape Provincial Legislature,” Sayed said. “From a process and transparency perspective, it’s completely wrong and we don’t accept his explanation.”

In response to media enquiries, Premier Winde’s spokesperson Regan Thaw said: “The trip was duly disclosed in the Department of the Premier's Annual Report. Nothing was concealed.”

While Sayed carried out his complaint, Winde hosted an online briefing with Western Cape MEC of Police Oversight and Community Safety, Anroux Marais, and Cape Town Executive Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, where critical importance of integrated safety and security initiatives was examined.

“Safety, economic growth, and job creation go hand in hand. To significantly drive growth and jobs, we must work closer together with our partners to reduce and prevent crime,” said Winde

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