Four of Parliament’s committee chairs have been accused of significant ethical violations over the past three years, but only one investigation into those alleged breaches has been finalised, and there is no certainty when any of the other probes will be completed, notes Business Day. Bongani Bongo, Faith Muthambi, Tina Joemat-Pettersson and Mosebenzi Zwane, all Ministers under former President Jacob Zuma, have been the subject of complaints made to Parliament’s Joint Committee on Ethics and Members Interests from 2016 to 2018. Only one of these complaints has been resolved: with a decision not to investigate Joemat-Pettersson. But the remaining former Ministers have spent years with unresolved accusations, ranging from bribery to misleading Parliament, hanging over their heads. Parliamentary spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said ‘you can’t impose time frames’ on the ‘due process’ and resolution of ethical complaints against MPs. ‘The committee deals with issues as expeditiously as it could, and observing all principles of natural justice.’ The report notes Bongo, the former State Security Minister, recently tried and failed to convince the Western Cape High Court to order the committee to finalise its bribery probe against him, arguing that the committee had taken too long to do so. That claim was dismissed as ‘ironic’ by Judge Ashley Binns-Ward, who pointed out the ethics inquiry had been put on ice as a result of Bongo’s own court action. Ntuthuzelo Vanara, the evidence leader of the parliamentary inquiry into the capture of Eskom, Transnet and Denel, claimed in October 2017 that Bongo offered him a ‘blank cheque’ if he would suppress the investigation. Business Day says the Hawks have completed a criminal probe into these claims and provided a docket to the NPA in May.