Zuma must go

13 November 2014

Note to Editors: The following speech was delivered by the DA Parliamentary Leader, Mmusi Maimane MP, during a National Assembly Debate on the Nkandla Ad Hoc Committee Report.

Honourable Speaker,

Honourable Members,  

Today we stand at a cross roads on our journey towards accountability and constitutional government.

The actions of this Parliament over the coming months will determine whether our democratic project has succeeded, or whether we have lapsed into state capture by the ANC.

The adoption of the Report by the Ad Hoc Committee on Nkandla is a travesty of Parliamentary oversight. Our president has forsaken his constitutional duty, and the ANC report has rubber-stamped his sins. 

Today the opposition stands together, united in our rejection of the Report and its collection of denials, half-truths and fallacies.

The debate today is a tale of two narratives.

The ANC narrative is set out in the Report of the Ad Hoc Committee.

This narrative describes how the cost of legitimate security upgrades to the President's residence escalated due to maladministration by public officials, and the principal agent of the project, Mr Minenhle Makhanya.

This narrative makes no distinction between security and non-security upgrades and it views the escalation of the cost as an unremarkable system failure.

Most importantly, in this narrative the President neither requested the upgrades, nor had any knowledge of their extent. 

He was merely the unassuming, hapless recipient of a generous gift from the South African tax payer. 

The President is an unwilling victim, who arrived home to discover that his private residence had been lavishly expanded at no cost to himself. He did not question this generosity but felt he was obliged to accept it graciously.

It is clear to every South African why this narrative is not credible.

But there is a second narrative, Honourable Speaker.

The second narrative is characterised by a President who wilfully misused the power of his office to benefit himself. 

In this narrative, President Zuma, together with his personal architect, Mr Makhanya, orchestrated a grand deception to expand the scope of the project while minimising his personal liability.

And so a swimming pool, cattle kraal, amphitheatre, tuck shop and visitors' centre were added to the list of security upgrades, and the cost thereof absorbed by you and I.

Honourable Speaker.

There is no justification for public funds being diverted so that the President's cattle can live a better life than the people of South Africa.

I have been in the community of Protea South in Soweto, where they live on dolomitic land where no one can build even modest houses. But while this community has no houses, the President took money meant to solve their Dolomite problem, and built himself a palace.

President Zuma is the only one here who has a good story to tell.

This is the real crime.

The President's unwillingness to accept liability for the undue benefit he received from the costly upgrades to his private residence are what lie at the heart of this matter.

Yet the ANC members of the Committee showed no desire to establish the truth and remain blindly loyal to their leader - Number One.

It was in the context of this clear desire to exonerate the President and allow him to dodge accountability that the Opposition members withdrew from the proceedings. 

Honourable speaker, I do not say this flippantly or without due diligence.

The Opposition has made a careful study of the ANC report and has released its own report based on verifiable evidence. This report shows a flagrant disregard for the facts of the matter. 

Here, Madam Speaker, is that Report; the Opposition Report on Nkandla.

It is signed and assented to by 7 parties of this Parliament; while the committee report was voted on by just 5 members of the ANC. 

It is for this reason that I say we are at a cross-roads on our journey towards accountability and constitutional government.

If Parliament can't be seen by the people to legitimately deal with the grave issues of Nkandla, then what it can it ever do legitimately again?

By virtue of his position, the President must be held to a higher standard. As the highest office bearer in the land, the President took an oath to uphold and maintain the Constitution.

He stood at the Union Buildings with his hand on the Bible and swore this oath. Yet now his band of supporters in the National Assembly cheer him on as he flouts it at every turn, selectively applying the Constitution at his whim.

The condescending and dismissive way in which President Zuma has dealt with queries surrounding Nkandla is unbecoming of the Office of the President.

The President has been party to a deception of the grandest scale. Public money was stolen at Nkandla, and now the President cowers in shame, hiding behind ANC numbers in Parliament.

It was money that was destined for inner city rejuvenation, dolomite housing alleviation and job creation. 

Most abhorrently, it was money stolen from the poor of South Africa who struggle every day to get ahead.

This is nothing short of an impeachable offence.

President Zuma must account! It is not our request - it is his constitutional imperative.

Should the President fail to heed this call we will be left with no choice but to move for his removal from office.

I thank you.

Issued by the DA, November 13 2014

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