Cape Town - There were strong murmurs of discontent among new and old MPs yesterday when they were told that it was in their best interests to declare all discounts and gifts they received, whether or not these were given because they were MPs.
During a meeting chaired by Luwellyn Landers, the former chairman of the joint committee on ethics and members' interests, they were, however, somewhat heartened by the fact that there were proposals in the pipeline to lift the ceiling on the value of all gifts they could receive without declaring them to parliament, from R350 to R1 000.
The R350, they agreed, was "peanuts" and they would welcome a higher limit. But they remained upset about the fact that they would have to declare all discounts on goods bought, whether the discounts were available to the general public or made because they were MPs.
Landers appealed to the MPs not "to shout at me" about the discount issue, as this would have to be thrashed out in general discussions in various committee meetings, including the all-powerful joint rules committee.
He rejected claims by MPs that some banks or stores had made "special arrangements" with parliament to offer MPs higher discounts than they would to the ordinary public. The banks or stores might have decided to do this off their own bat to get more business, rather than to influence legislation, "but parliament has nothing to do with this", he said.
There was nothing inherently wrong with getting discounts but they should be declared to avoid possible problems down the line.
The idea, he said, was to ensure that MPs were above reproach and did not use their status to get special deals for vehicles and other major capital outlays. It was important to reduce "the perception of impropriety" that many member of the public had about MPs.
But the MPs complained that the present code of conduct contained "too many grey areas", such as whether cattle paid for lobola or other traditional reasons, training received from firms or sponsorships for committees to make trips should also be declared.
Landers agreed that these and other issues had to be clarified but he urged members to "err on the side of caution" and declare all gifts, sponsorships and other hand-outs that could be seen as part of attempts by companies, institutions or communities to influence decisions on laws before parliament.
Landers said he was concerned that some provinces had not yet followed parliament's lead in publishing a code of conduct, while local governments "don't even talk about these things".
Fazela Mahomed, the registrar of members' interests, said all personal financial information submitted was kept confidential but if she received complaints that a certain member had not disclosed gifts, discounts or sponsorships totalling more than R350, an inquiry could lead to a public rebuke in parliament.
She said she usually tried to sort out the issue before it went that far, as some omissions could be because of a misunderstanding of the rules or the complaint could have been made by someone with a grievance against the MP concerned.