CONGRESS OF THE PEOPLE WELCOMES THE REPORTED FINDINGS OF THE PUBLIC PROTECTOR'S REPORT ON NKANDLA.
Congress of the People President Mr. Mosiuoa Lekota announced today that the party welcomes the findings of the Public Protector's report on Nkandla, as revealed in the Mail and Guardian (see report).
According to the newspaper, the report directs President Zuma to repay the state and explain himself to Parliament.
"We immediately welcome and support to the hilt the report that the Public Protector's directs that President Zuma pay back public funds," says Mr. Lekota.
"The Public Protector continues to act in defence of all the country's tax payers in the face of rampant executive corruption and abuse of power."
"The Congress of the People calls on the electorate to support the Hands off the Public Protector campaign," added Mr. Lekota.
Mr. Lekota says that if the reports are correct, the implication is that President Zuma deceived parliament and lied when he insisted last November in Parliament that "the buildings and every room we use in that residence were built by ourselves as family and not by government."
Mr. Lekota says the country, facing so many challenges from access to quality healthcare facilities to provision of decent education, cannot afford to spend tax payers' money in such a cavalier manner.
"If the Mail and Guardian document is indeed the final report from the Public Protector, it raises the issue of the security cluster ministers' concerted effort to bar the Public Protector from publishing this report and we would go so far as to suspect an elaborate plan to keep South Africans in the dark about the damming findings in this report.
"How can we expect state officials to heed the call against abuse of state resources when the most senior office bearer in the land is guilty of that same abuse?" asked Mr. Lekota.
"I intend to raise this matter with the electorate when I visit KwaZulu-Natal this weekend to further lobby communities to protect our hard won freedoms," says Mr. Lekota.
Statement issued by J.J. (Johann) Abrie (MPL), Acting Head of Communication, Congress of the People, November 29 2013
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
