Absa bank leaked interim report a political agenda

18 January 2017

The leaking of the sensitive ABSA bank draft report must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. The leak is clearly a political agenda, and it’s not just an innocent leak.

Congress of the People wants to be very clear that we will never support any form of corruption, whether it has been committed by the Apartheid regime or committed by this Democratic government.

Corruption is the number one enemy of the people.

We however say it is premature for anyone to pass judgment on this ABSA leaked report, and we are of the view that we give the Public Protector time to finalize the report and officially release the report to the public because for now this report has no status.

COPE question the timing of this leaked report and views it as a counter to the State Capture Report. We believe its intention is to divert the negative attention away from Mr Zuma and the Gupta's.

The damaging State Capture Report has exposed how the Gupta family has captured Mr Zuma, many of his cabinet ministers and senior government officials, all in the Gupta family’s pocket.

COPE is in full support with the steps that the Public Protector took in laying criminal charges with the police so that the police investigation the leakage.

We are calling upon the police to priorities this investigation.

We want to reiterate our principle position; if anyone steals from the poor, whether you are President Jacob Zuma or ABSA bank, we will chase you and demand you pay back every cent you took illegally.

We say nobody is above the law. Ends!

Issued by Dennis Bloem, COPE Spokesperson, 18 January 2017