DA to move motion to substitute ANC Nkandla whitewash report with opposition report
17 August 2015
Note to Editors: These are the remarks made at a press conference on the steps of the National Assembly (NA) today by the DA’s Chief Whip, John Steenhuisen MP, DA Shadow Minister of Correctional Services, James Selfe MP, DA Shadow Minister of Justice, Adv Glynnis Breytenbach MP and DA Shadow Deputy Minister in the Presidency, Phumzile Van Damme MP, ahead of the NA’s consideration of the report adopted by the Nkandla Ad Hoc Committee in Parliament.
Tomorrow’s plenary in the NA will mark the conclusion of the third Nkandla-related ad hoc committee in two years.
During this time the opposition, led by the Democratic Alliance, has arduously sought to unearth the truth surrounding the R246 million upgrades made to President Jacob Zuma’s private home at Nkandla, and hold him to account.
However, from the first ad hoc committee established during the Fourth Parliament, to this, the third iteration, the ANC has used its majority to deflect any and all liability from President Zuma and undermine the Public Protector, Adv. Thuli Madonsela.
Despite numerous pleas and attempts to properly interrogate the Police Minister’s report, the ANC has refused to allow key witnesses such as Adv. Madonsela to appear before the committee to brief it on her report and its proposed remedial actions. Instead the committee’s scope was restricted to the Minister of Police, Nathi Nhleko’s report.
Minister Nhleko was directed by the President to determine how much of the security upgrades at his private residence the President is financially liable for. Minister Nhleko’s report serves no other purpose but to absolve President Zuma from any and all liability, and in the process creates a conflict of interest at odds with our Constitution.
The report assumes a status equivalent to that of the Public Protector, a Chapter 9 institution. It is poorly drafted, at times factually inaccurate and deliberately obfuscates and contradicts the Public Protector’s and Special Investigating Units’ (SIU) findings, without rational grounds.
As a result the ad hoc committee’s report is fundamentally flawed and conflicted.
Tomorrow, the DA will move a motion in the NA to have the ad hoc committee’s report substituted with a minority report drafted by the Opposition.
Our report, which we will move is adopted by the NA, finds that:
The Minister of Police misinterpreted his mandate and only concentrated on four issues. He failed to consider the other issues raised in the reports of the Public Protector and the Special Investigating Unit;
The Minister of Police, by his own admission, never engaged with the Public Protector, contrary to the judgement delivered by Judge Ashton Schippers;
Prices were inflated, and there were instances of poor workmanship;
All those responsible for deviations from the Public Finance Management Act should be held accountable; and
None of the amounts spent at Nkandla appeared in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework or departmental budgets, thus they were deliberately hidden from Parliament.
Minister Nhleko’s report – effectively rubber-stamped by the ANC in the Committee – is completely at odds with due process and our Constitution, and should have been declared irrational by Parliament. Tomorrow is our last chance to do so.
We therefore appeal, today, to all members of the National Assembly (NA) – especially those within the ANC – to exercise their consciences and support the deletion and substitution of the Nkandla whitewash report with the DA’s minority report.
We have a chance tomorrow to do what is right, and protect our Constitution and its Chapter Nine institutions. As Members of Parliament, who took an oath to uphold the Constitution, we are duty-bound to do this.
Statement issued by John Steenhuisen MP, Democratic Alliance Chief Whip, August 17 2015
