The New Age 26 January 2017

Manyi threatens interdict on FICA legislation DENNIS CRUYWAGEN

MILITANT: Mzwanele Manyi, Danisa Baloyi, Sindi Mzamo and Tshepo Kgadima at yesterday’s FICA parliamentary hearing. PICTURE: ANN7

THE president of the Progressive Professional Forum (PPF), Mzwanele Manyi, has warned Parliament they will interdict President Jacob Zuma to stop him from signing the contentious Financial Intelligence Centre Amendment Bill into law. His threat came as the executive director of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac) Lawson Naidoo implored Parliament to expedite the passage of the bill. Manyi and Naidoo were among people who gave presentations to the Standing Committee on Finance in Parliament yesterday. The Portfolio Committee held public hearings following a decision by President Zuma to refer the bill back to Parliament. At the hearings, Cas Coovadia, MD of the Banking Association of SA, rejected allegations the Bill gave banks any powers to conduct searches. “Any narrative to the contrary is not correct. We just need to dispel this notion,” Coovadia said. The bill, he said, would not give banks “powers that they do not have and quite honestly powers that they do not want”. In his evidence, Manyi called on the committee to operate in good faith and ensure that South Africa’s Constitution was upheld. He said: “We will not allow the president to sign into law something that is going to plunge this country into crisis. We will

interdict the president in a court of law.” He added: “We say if the president signs this the president will not do his duty. We want to implore the committee to look at the bill holistically.” It was not advisable, he said, for the committee to take a narrow approach and ignore the consequences that the “bill has in violating our constitutional rights”. Naidoo urged the committee to send the bill unchanged back to President Zuma. When the bill was sent to President Zuma last year, Naidoo said he failed to act for five months until Casac forced his hand. He urged the committee to consider a mechanism that would ensure that once Parliament returns the bill to President Zuma he signs it into law quickly. Danisa Baloyi of the Black Business Council said the bill would affect black business people directly. She was dismissive of evidence given earlier by senior lawyers. “We need to talk to the facts having listened to the lawyers. To me this is legal speak. To my members it’s reality. “Bank accounts are being closed. When they ask they are told ‘we are not allowed to tell you’.” Her own bank account, she said, was also closed. “I feel it’s wrong. It’s a violation of our rights. I at least need to know why my account is being closed. They tell us ‘go to court’. How can we go to court if we have no money?” [email protected]