Unnecessary battle of Nkandla ends in justice
31 March 2016
The unanimous judgment handed down today by the Constitutional Court has ended an inordinately costly two year process of back and forth in which the ruling party sought to use its parliamentary majority to protect the patently unlawful actions of its President. In light of this judgment and the statement of the Constitutional Court that the President has acted illegally, the only rational response from the ANC would be to ask the President of South Africa to step down.
Reacting to the judgment, the Chief Whip of the Inkatha Freedom Party, the Hon. Mr Narend Singh MP, said, “The Chief Justice has given us cause for hope this morning. The judgment of the Constitutional Court is more far-reaching than many of the experts thought it would be, and for that we are grateful.”
“In the very first meeting of the parliamentary ad hoc Committee on Security Upgrades at Nkandla – in 2014 – I stood on behalf of the IFP and asked the Committee to apply for a declaratory order from the Constitutional Court to pronounce on ‘the binding nature of remedial action recommended by the Public Protector’. But the predominantly ANC Committee refused.”
Seeking a declaratory order is not an unusual step. This is currently being done by the Electoral Commission on the question of determining voters’ residential addresses. The failure to seek such an order from the Constitutional Court led to the inordinate delay in finalising this damaging matter, and has taken a toll on our citizens’ respect for the President, Parliament and elected public representatives.