Ministers must answer for Whitewash Nkandla Report

The revelations today that one of the ‘accused' in the Public Works Task Team Report on the Nkandlagate scandal - Deputy Minister Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu - was not even interviewed by ‘investigators' emphasises the extent to which the report is a complete whitewash - with one major objective: to clear President Jacob Zuma of all wrong-doing before the elections (see Sunday Times report).

It is also revealing that the former Minister of Public Works, Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde - who allegedly authored a letter to President Zuma setting out the details of the upgrade and which I raised in Parliament last year - was also not questioned. This is despite being in charge of the project at the time of its inception.

With the additional absence of the President himself from the question roll - who at the very least should have been placed on record about his knowledge of the details of the project - this report is not worth the paper it is written on. 

This blatant attempt to fool South Africans cannot go unanswered. The ministers in the security cluster must be held to account and provide answers for the complete inadequacy of the report they have produced.

The DA will therefore request that:

• The full list of all those who were interviewed, right to the very top, is made public without delay;
• The report be tabled before the Portfolio Committee of Public Works for scrutiny of its details and legitimacy;
• All the ministers in the security cluster are summoned before the committee at the first available opportunity to explain themselves to Members of Parliament.

Members of the Executive are entrusted with important responsibilities by the people of South Africa. It becomes a matter of serious concern when such trust is blatantly misused for political objectives. South Africans should never be taken as fools by the government it elected.

These Ministers must now explain themselves to the country. Anything less would allow them to get away with taking our people, and the important constitutional principle of accountability, for granted.

Statement issued by Lindiwe Mazibuko MP, DA Parliamentary Leader, December 22 2013

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