Zuma: I don't know where #GuptaEmails come from
Cape Town - President Jacob Zuma says he has no idea where the so-called #GuptaEmails have come from, and they will be tested during three separate probes into state capture.
Zuma was answering questions in the National Assembly on Thursday when he said the country must let the law takes its course around probes into state capture.
NFP MP Nhlanhlakayise Khubisa asked Zuma in a supplementary question if it was urgent for his government to "harness" the continuous leak of the damning emails, to protect the country.
"The very fact that every Sunday, the emails or whatever, are up there, it indicates how transparent the country is," Zuma responded.
"In other countries, you don't see such things.
"Secondly: the emails, I don't know where they come from, I don't know how authentic they are, they have not been tested in any institutions.
"What has been done as part of our measures, we have taken a decision to establish a judicial commission of inquiry, and the emails will be a part of that. So we are not leaving them unattended to."
He said the inquiry will find out to what extent they are disrupting the lives of South Africans.
"We are moving as fast as possible to establish the commission," he finished amid Democratic Alliance MPs shouting over him.
'Rome is burning'
IFP chief whip Narend Singh followed up by saying Zuma has been accused of being lukewarm on the serious nature of the leaked emails.
Singh asked, while "Rome is burning", how will Zuma ensure that radical economic transformation remains untainted by state capture.
Zuma said there are at least three processes underway to probe state capture.
"Just a few days before she [the former Public Protector] left office, she produced a report... That was something being done.
"Some of the findings have been taken on review. There has never been quietness.
"The new Public Protector is also attending to the report. You also said Parliament is discussing the matter. So it is not as if Rome is burning and nothing is being done.”
The presidency will announce in due course when its judicial commission will be established and begin its work.
He finished by asking rhetorically how many institutions should investigate before MPs are satisfied, and which ones will produce the best results.
"Which of all of these three will produce the report where we can say, this is the report with the kind of recommendations to implement?
"Who is burning the Rome?"
'Go ask the NPA about corruption charges'
ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe asked the original question on whether Zuma plans to expedite the process around setting up a judicial commission of inquiry into state capture.
Zuma said the country must let law enforcement agencies do their work in the processes around the setting up of a judicial commission of inquiry.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane also said that when he laid charges against Zuma to reinstate corruption charges against him, it had taken the NPA 1200 days to investigate.
"Is it acceptable for the NPA to take 1200 days on the matters I laid against you?" Maimane asked.
Zuma quipped, "I think the honourable member is asking the wrong person. You did not lay the charges against me to investigate.
"What the NPA is doing, I don't know."
DA MPs shouted, "He doesn't care".
"I didn't say I don't care, I said I don't know," Zuma answered.
"Why you are asking me, I'm not investigating. You should go to where you made the charges and ask why it is taking long. You are asking the wrong person."
'What else can you do?'
During the round, Zuma landed a subtle jab at opposition parties, accompanied by his trademark laugh, when they failed to receive the answers they wanted.
Meshoe had said most South Africans are worried about the leak of the emails, and wanted to know if he would intervene in the problems at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa.
He also asked Zuma if he can name an example where action was being taken against corruption in state-owned enterprises like Prasa.
"I don't agree that most South Africans have the view that you express," he answered. "That's an exaggeration, there is no testing that has been made.
"Secondly, you contradict yourself. You say no action has been taken, but then you say action has been taken.
"The chairperson of the board is now complaining that the action has not [been] completed. You ask me, can you mention one example? You have just mentioned Prasa.
"[You're] just politicking. What else can you do?" he finished with a laugh.
Zuma: No need for secret ballot. You have failed 7 times
President Zuma says there is no need to have a secret ballot during a motion of no confidence in his presidency, as the vote has failed on seven previous occasions.
Zuma was asked during a question session in the National Assembly on Thursday if he would support a decision by Speaker Baleka Mbete to hold the vote via secret ballot, following the Constitutional Court's ruling earlier.
He said opposition parties have exhausted all their options, and are now trying to find a majority in Parliament that they did not earn at the polls.
"You are trying to get a majority you don't have, by saying secret ballot," he said in reply to Freedom Front Plus MP Corne Mulder.
"I think it's unfair, because you are trying to increase the majority you don't have.
"That is my view, let us vote the way we have been voting. Maybe it's your job to find alternative methods; fact of the matter is, you don't have the majority."
Zuma said the ConCourt ruling was clear that the decision was now in the Speaker's hands, and asked why this time should be any different.
"I have faced seven kinds of votes of no confidence. You have tried your best, but you have failed," he continued.
"Why this time, should you do it differently? It's trying to find a way to see if you can win or not. What has gone wrong? What is the problem?
"My view is that we should do what we have done in the past. I see no convincing reason why we should change."
He said Parliament has got the sufficient instruments for MPs to vote.
'I can't resign, the ANC must remove me'
Zuma, in answering the original question from AIC leader Mandlenkosi Galo, said there was no application before the ConCourt to have him impeached.
Galo followed up with a supplementary question and asked if it would be better for Zuma to step down for the sake of his own party, as his party had made him.
Zuma laughed his characteristic laugh before answering, admitting his political life was "indeed made by the ANC".
"The ANC elected me to be the president. The day it thinks I can't be the president, it will remove me. The ANC has not done so, so I can't do so.
Opposition parties could not have the final say, as it was not them who had elected him.
"The ones who say this president must go, they never made any effort to make me a president.
"So don't worry. Don't even worry about anything. Just sit in peace and rest. Don't worry," he said confidently, to applause from most of the caucus members.
'ANC will win in 2019'
Zuma was also adamant that the opposition's attempts would result in the ANC winning a majority during the sixth democratic elections.
"In 2019, the ANC will win once again because you don't have a majority.
"You can try, you can do everything, you can go to court, the court will bring you back to the legislature. That will happen," he said to laughter from the ANC MPs.
In a follow up question, Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane asked Zuma about him overseeing South Africa's downgrade to junk status.
"It is absolutely true that the people of this country prefer the ANC to lead them up to this point. No doubt about that," Zuma responded.
"The junk status is not for the first time in South Africa, and there have been different reasons. It has come and gone. Don't make this a Zuma thing."
He said opposition parties must not make the mistake of misleading the country to think the people did not want the ANC in government.
"They love it. If you don't love it, there's nothing strange, [because] you are an opposition."
SA is 'running well under me'
He said that if the country went to the elections today, the opposition would lose.
He claimed people have seen the "mistake" they made not voting ANC in the metros the ruling party lost during the local government elections in 2016.
"You talk as if you won with a [land]slide majority. You had to talk and beg other parties to help you form this municipality. That tells you it could have been for anyone," he told Maimane.
"You had to do many things: not sleep, negotiating to get parties on your side.
"In fact you are being threatened by EFF, that they will run away, and you might find yourself out of it. It is a small little thing of cooperation with other parties.
"Don't talk as if you won this with an overwhelming majority. We know anytime you can lose it.
"The people of South Africa did not make a mistake in elevating me as president of South Africa. I am fit and it’s running very well."
When the session adjourned, Zuma received a standing ovation from most in the ANC benches.
SACP MPs within the ANC benches, and a handful of other backbenchers, remained seated, which they did during Zuma's budget debate in May too.
