Marikana and Nkandla reports need to be tabled before Parliament

06 May 2015

I have today written to the Leader of Government Business, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, and the Speaker of the National Assembly, Baleka Mbete, calling them to work earnestly to ensure that the Marikana and Nkandla reports are tabled before the National Assembly as a matter of urgency.

By allowing these processes to drag on indefinitely, the ANC is sending out a message that it has no intention of seeing justice served in these issues of national importance.

One month after receiving the report by the Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the tragic events at Marikana, the President is yet to table it before Parliament. I wrote to the President on 31 March 2015 to ask him to commit to a date, on which the report will be made public, but no response was received nor any commitment made. 

The Presidency, however, confirmed on 31 March 2015 that it had received the report, claiming at the time that President Zuma was on a state visit to Algeria and would “prioritise the consideration of the report on his return.” Despite the President having concluded that visit the following day on 1 April 2015, the report is yet to be made public and the matter remains unresolved.

The same evasive tactics have been employed to allow the President to escape accountability for the large-scale corruption committed during the upgrades to his private residence at Nkandla. 

I have written to the President and submitted questions to the Minister of Police, Nathi Nhleko, asking for updates on the Nkandla matter, to which I have not received definitive responses. In the meantime the President has been allowed to evade the law and dismiss the findings of the Public Protector without any repercussions.

In each case, justice has yet to be served, and until the reports are tabled and made public, justice is being denied. It cannot be right or just that people are killed and public money is stolen to build a palace for the President while those responsible are not being held to account. This is a betrayal of our young democracy, which should be based on the foundations of justice and the rule of law.

The Democratic Alliance will not allow justice to be subverted and will fight to see the law upheld.

Statement issued by Mmusi Maimane MP, DA Parliamentary Leader, May 6 2015