Nkandla: ANC's frantic spin a last-ditch effort to protect President Jacob Zuma
The DA is deeply concerned by the remarks made during the ANC's press conference today, supposedly responding to the Public Protector's report on the Nkandla scandal.
The press briefing was riddled with inaccuracies, fudged explanations and scapegoating, no doubt part of a last ditch effort to protect President Jacob Zuma from being held accountable.
The ANC is clearly a political party which has abandoned its proud legacy. Today, it is a party that protects corrupt politicians, instead of firing them.
Indeed, there was deafening silence during today's ANC briefing on what the party will do to ensure that President Zuma and other ministers implicated in wrongdoing in this report are fully held to account. There will be no special NEC meeting to consider the matter, and President Zuma has not been asked to resign or even to apologise to the nation.
ANC Secretary-General, Gwede Mantashe instead focussed on ‘similarities' between the Public Works Task Team report and the Public Protector report. This is massively disingenuous. The Task Team report is patently a government-sponsored whitewash, only 36 pages in length, which was unlawfully and improperly classified by Minister Thulas Nxesi to protect President Zuma from scrutiny.
The Public Works report hid behind earthquakes, geography and crime in Nkandla to try and justify the R206 million spending. It made no findings of any substance on the President and his ministers. It should be ignored and treated as what it is: a weak attempt at a political cover up.
It is deeply concerning that a legal review might be pursued by the ANC because there is conflicting information from the reports emanating from these ‘two state institutions'.
The ANC's efforts to create a contest between these two investigations echoes a worrying finding from the ANC-dominated Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence Report on the Public Works Task Team report, which found that (11.1 and 11.2):
"Institutions and entities which have investigative powers or the authority to authorise such investigations should not be inappropriately motivated or influenced to launch into an investigation on a matter which has already been assigned to another entity. It is therefore recommended that the Executive give urgent attention to this matter, in particular, reviewing the necessary legislation so that unnecessary parallel investigations can be avoided."
This is ominous and worrying and points to an increasing tendency by the governing party to undermine independent investigations.
Should this ‘legal review' be pursued, the DA will seek to join the case as an intervening party - as we will do in the matter between the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Public Protector.
The DA remains committed to ensuring that every single person - including the President - is held accountable for this corruption, which has become symbolic of the rot at the heart of President Jacob Zuma's ANC.
This is why I will submit a motion to impeach President Zuma for his role in the Nkandla corruption, and ask that Parliament is recalled to consider the President's conduct as a matter of urgency.
The time has come for President Zuma to go.
South Africans must stand together to ensure that the ANC is not allowed to evade responsibility for this scandal.
We must stand together to remove Jacob Zuma as President of the Republic of South Africa - either through a parliamentary impeachment or at the ballot box on 7 May 2014.
Statement issued by Lindiwe Mazibuko MP, Parliamentary Leader of the Democratic Alliance, March 20 2014
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