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Uproar over Goniwe call to censure observers
Hopewell Radebe, Business Day
April 05, 2005

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A33228

OPPOSITION parties have lashed out at the African National Congress (ANC) chief whip for demanding disciplinary action against MPs who did not endorse the findings of the South African parliamentary observer team in Zimbabwe.

United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said ANC chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe risked embarrassing himself and wasting Parliament’s time because the MPs reflected the mandate and political views of their respective parties.

The furore follows an election that Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana, the head of SA’s observer delegation, said reflected "the free will of the people of Zimbabwe", but which the Southern African Development Community observer mission said had some flaws.

Goniwe urged that Parliament reprimand two of its observers "for undermining its mandate".

Vincent Gore of the Independent Democrats (ID) and Roy Jankielsohn of the Democratic Alliance withdrew from the mission on instructions from party leaderships.

Holomisa lambasted Goniwe as well as the two dissenting MPs for causing an "unnecessary political sideshow", saying if they had a different view about the elections they should have written a minority report reflecting their observations.

Jankielsohn said there were disagreements about his leaving the mission two days early and he was told to pay back his travel allowance for that period by Goniwe.

Before the election, Gore stated that conditions were unlikely to render the elections free and fair.

The ID said yesterday that it would fight any ANC attempt to stifle dissenting views on the outcome of the Zimbabwe elections.

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