EFF WELCOMES THE CONCOURT DECISION TO HAVE PUBLIC PROTECTOR JOIN THE PAY BACK THE MONEY CASE
The EFF welcomes the Constitutional Court decision to have the Public Protector join in on the EFF case to have Zuma #PayBackTheMoney. This decision is significant because the powers of the Public Protector have been ridiculed and challenged by many in government, including by Zuma himself. The court is therefore affording the Public Protector not only an opportunity to clarify her powers in relation to the office of the president, but also to properly explain her remedial actions against Zuma.
The EFF's prayer to the constitutional court is simple. The prayer is that Zuma must be ordered to #PayBackTheMoney improperly used in the upgrade of his home in Nkandla. This case will restore the dignity and respectability to the office of the Public Protector because many who steal and abuse state resources in government no longer hold the work of the Public Protector in high esteem because they think that they can get away with it like Zuma.
Zuma has done everything in his power to avoid paying back the money. This includes using ministers like Nhleko to fabricate a path out of the responsibility to pay. He has also stood in parliament and lied, saying the money used in Nkandla was from a bank loan when it was not. Zuma has lied about the Nkandla matter, ridiculed it and many who sought to raise it in parliament and allowed his ministers to also attack all who raise it, including the office of the Public Protector.
It is no secret that parliament went to the extent of institutionalizing violence in the form of bouncers to protect Zuma from dealing with the question of #PayBackTheMoney. Fortunately, there are no bouncers, ministers, or preceding officers with their draconian speaker, to protect him from answering properly at the ConCourt. The judges ask direct question and seek direct answers; when they say when are you paying back the money, they do not expect you to say who must pay it. They say this because they would have already concluded that person they ask the question, must pay.
The decision to allow the Public Protector to join makes this matter now officially of public interest as the Public Protector constitutionally represents all of the South African public regardless of their creed, party affiliation and class. The struggle against the abuse of state resources and corruption by politicians, their families and friends will indeed be advanced by a thousand steps. The EFF calls on all South Africans to also throw their support in this historic fight against a corrupt president who has no regard for public resources.
Issued by Mbuyiseni Quintin Ndlozi, National Spokesperson, Economic Freedom Fighters, 6 October 2015
