he office of the ANC chief whip in Parliament on Tuesday accused the DA of abusing the Public Protector for its own political agenda.

This was after the Democratic Alliance’s leader Mmusi Maimane announced that he had written to Public Protector Thuli Madonsela to investigate whether any state funds were used to transport Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir out of the country, despite a court order barring him from leaving.

“The decision by the DA to approach the public protector on this matter is driven by sheer political posturing which makes a mockery of this important Chapter 9 institution,” spokesperson for the office of the ANC chief whip Moloto Mothapo said in a statement.

“The public protector’s office is inundated with an avalanche of serious, and sometimes desperate, complaints from the public, and the DA’s political games would worsen the backlog and cause undue delays on legitimate cases from ordinary members of the public.”

The National Assembly will on Tuesday debate why al-Bashir was allowed to leave South Africa.

The Mail & Guardian on Friday reported that President Jacob Zuma and senior ministers from the justice cluster had carefully planned how al-Bashir would leave the country, despite a warrant for his arrest by the International Criminal Court (ICC), to which South Africa is a signatory.

The SA Litigation Centre had applied for South Africa to enforce two warrants for al-Bashir’s arrest issued by the ICC in 2009 and 2010 relating to alleged war crimes and genocide.

Judge Hans Fabricius then ordered the Department of Home Affairs to ensure that all points of entry and exit be informed that al-Bashir was not allowed to leave until SALC’s application was concluded.

Al-Bashir left the country while the matter was still being heard in court, which caused an uproar countrywide.

Mothapo said the DA had other oversight avenues which it could follow in Parliament in its search for answers to its questions on al-Bashir. These include oral and written questions to the executive.

“Furthermore, the matter of President al-Bashir’s visit is a subject of an ongoing court process. If the DA respects and upholds our courts’ jurisdiction and jurisprudence, as it often claims, it should allow the court process to run its course,” he said. News24