Nkandla Ad Hoc Committee: DA members and expectations
20 August 2014
Today the Democratic Alliance announces the selection of two members who will serve on the Nkandla Ad Hoc Committee, and one alternate member.
Yesterday, 19 August 2014, Parliament voted to establish this Ad Hoc Committee. That resolution of Parliament gives the Democratic Alliance two seats on the Ad Hoc Committee.
The work of this Committee is vital, and its establishment in this Fifth Parliament is a cause that the DA has long championed. We welcome the ANC's accession to our calls.
Parliament must establish all the facts of the allegations that emerge out of reports into the Nkandla scandal and specifically the abuse of R246-million of public funds that went into funding the private residence of one man.
For this reason, we welcome that the Nkandla Ad Hoc Committee will soon begin its work to consider the reply of President Zuma to the damning allegations against him contained in various Nkandla reports, most notably that of the Public Protector, named "Secure in Comfort", and those reports as the basis of his reply.
The DA maintains that the reply of the President, handed to the Speaker on 14 August 2014, is wholly inadequate and is an attempt to sidestep the true purpose of accounting to Parliament for his actions.
The DA announces that the two members of our Party who will sit as permanent members on this committee, to undertake this vital work, will be:
1. As Leader of the Opposition, and having personally championed the formation of this Ad Hoc Committee, I take up a permanent seat, and
2. As Chairperson of the DA Federal Executive, my colleague with supreme Parliamentary experience, and great experience in dealing with the report of the Public Protector, James Selfe MP will also take up a permanent seat. James Selfe served on the Nkandla Ad Hoc Committee in the Fourth Parliament, and will bring to this Fifth Parliament Committee the experience of that committee.
We will also nominate as our alternate member of this committee, should either James Selfe or I not be able to attend any particular sitting, the Shadow Minister of Justice, Advocate Glynnis Breytenbach.
I believe that this combination will allow the Democratic Alliance to thoroughly interrogate the material before the Ad Hoc Committee and to work to reveal the truth around Nkandla, for the people of South Africa.
In terms of Rule 215(3)(a) the names of members of the Ad Hoc Committee from all parties must be given to the Speaker within five working days after the establishment of the Ad Hoc Committee. Therefore, by Tuesday, 26 August 2014 the Speaker must announce the members submitted to her. Thereafter the work of the Ad Hoc Committee must begin.
The mandate given by yesterday's resolution of Parliament to the committee is a more restrictive mandate than the Nkandla Ad Hoc Committee in the Fourth Parliament. In that former Nkandla Ad Hoc Committee the mandate included consideration of the Public Protector's "Secure in Comfort" report, and the report of the Special Investigating Unit into Nkandla. Yesterday's motion by the ANC Chief Whip purposefully excluded those, despite the DA's effort to amend the motion to include them.
The ANC Chief Whip is however now on record as saying that the mandate leaves the gate open for the Ad Hoc Committee to consider any and all other relevant material. Therefore, the DA will make it our first order of business in the Ad Hoc Committee to push for the explicit inclusion of consideration of the Public Protector's Report into Nkandla, along with the SIU report and the report of the Inter-Ministerial Task Team. These crucial documents are absolutely essential in considering the reply of the President to the Nkandla allegations against him.
The DA is confident that this new Nkandla Ad Hoc Committee will include consideration of these documents into its mandate, as the previous Ad Hoc Committee did, to fully uncover the truth in this matter.
The DA records that Parliament and its Ad Hoc Committees have the right to subpoena any person to appear and to explain their reports. Further, the DA records that the Public Protector has already indicated that she is willing to appear before an Nkandla Ad Hoc Committee to explain her Nkandla Report, "Secure in Comfort".
The DA hopes that this new Ad Hoc Committee will have no hesitation in inviting the Public Protector to do so.
South Africa deserves to know the truth of how the Nkandla scandal came to be, and who will be held accountable.
Statement issued by Mmusi Maimane MP, DA Parliamentary Leader, August 20 2014
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