ZUMA & ANC MUST TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR DEBACLE AT NKANDLA

27 July 2015

Mac Maharaj correctly asserted that the President should take responsibility for the debacle at Nkandla (see report). Whether or not President Zuma asked for the security upgrades is not the question.

The squandered quantum is the main issue. At the heart of the challenge to the ANC administration is the demure manner in which Public Works signed off on a bill in excess of R120-million for 20 shoddily built houses. Criminality is writ large here and the nation needs answers on what happened here.

The responsibility for the massive waste of public resources at Nkandla is that of the President and the ruling party. The Public Protector was too soft in her recommendations to the President. Ironically, the ANC MPs who went to Nkandla were far more scathing than Madonsela. They looked hard but could not find where the R246 million was spent. They said so openly and on camera. This finding by ANC MPs is fatal to the defence of the President.

Therefore, where did the R246-million go? It is the responsibility of ANC Ministers and MPs to account in full to the nation. Furthermore, they must tell the nation when and how President Zuma and the government will recover the stolen money and what action it will take against the colluders and looters? These indeed are the questions for the ANC to answer honestly and unambiguously. The cat is out of the bag.

If Mac Maharaj saw clearly and early enough that the responsibility lay with the President for the huge cost overruns, what subsequent blindness precluded other ANC ministers and MPs from seeing that also? That this happened at the President’s homestead is a side issue. Tight fiscal control is the responsibility of the party in power and therefore any colossal scam is something it has to answer for. People don't pay taxes for looters to make merry with their contributions to the fiscus. Wherever public money is wantonly lost, the ruling party has to take responsibility.

By their own candid but late admission, the party dismally failed the nation. Both the President and the ruling party are now in the dock.

The tables are turning. The ruling party is now sensing that the “fire pool” story is not going to douse the flaming public rage and anger. Frolic was unambiguous. This was a swimming pool. Taxpayers do not pay for swimming pools in any person's private residence.

The ANC has to take responsibility. It can no longer duck and dive. More so, the President has to take responsibility. Finally, those who handled the project and signed off on payments must equally take responsibility.

Every responsible government takes responsibility for its actions and its spending. The ANC must take responsibility for the wild expenditure at Nkandla that had no regard whatsoever for the Public Finance Management Act.

If the President had heeded his spokesperson’s sage and timely advice on taking responsibility, how differently the problem would have resolved itself. Now, the choice is no longer there.

There is now a compulsion for the President and the ANC to take responsibility and recompense the taxpayers of our country.

Statement issued by Dennis Bloem, COPE spokesperson, July 27 2015