Nkandla Ad Hoc Committee must consider Madonsela's letter to Zuma

24 August 2014 

At the first sitting of the ad hoc committee on Nkandla in Parliament, the DA will move for the Public Protector, Adv. Thuli Madonsela, to be called to appear before the committee and to table the content of her letter to the President (see City Press report).

Reports in today's print media that the Public Protector has had to write to President Jacob Zuma, unable to accept his reply to her Nkandla report, raise serious questions about the President's contempt for her Nkandla report.

The Public Protector is reported as having made it clear that she is not satisfied with the President's response. The DA agrees that the President's response was inadequate.

The President has long strung the Public Protector, Parliament, and the people of South Africa along on his reply to the damning findings of undue personal benefit at Nkandla, and his contempt for accountability is now fully exposed. 

He is yet to respond to the allegation that he has unduly benefitted from the upgrades, and whether or not he will repay any undue benefits he has received. The appointment of the Police Minister as the final arbiter on this question is without legal basis, and constitutionally problematic, as Madonsela's letter reportedly confirms.

Parliament's Nkandla Ad Hoc Committee will soon begin its work, and in its mandate to consider the President's reply to various allegations, findings, and incomplete remedial actions on Nkandla, the Ad Hoc Committee must be able to consider Madonsela's letter to President Zuma.

The people of South Africa deserve the truth on Nkandla, and until the Ad Hoc Committee can consider all relevant documents, letters, and reports, we will be no closer to uncovering how President Zuma unduly benefited from public funds to the tune of R246-million and what he will be doing to pay the money back.

The DA will push for the letter of the Public Protector to be explicitly included in the work of the Ad Hoc Committee.

Statement issued by Mmusi Maimane MP, DA Parliamentary Leader, August 24 2014

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