DA calls on President Zuma to answer questions on Zimbabwe, the Arms Deal and the Oilgate scandal

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has submitted parliamentary questions to President Jacob Zuma on three critical issues which his predecessors failed to address or provide clear answers on in the past.

The three questions posed to President Zuma are:

• Whether the President will appoint an independent commission of inquiry into the arms deal;
• Whether the President will release the main findings and recommendations made in the oral testimony given to the Presidency by the retired generals that were commissioned by former President Mbeki to investigate the role of the military in post-election violence in Zimbabwe during 2008 and whether he is considering sending these retired generals back to Zimbabweto probe reports of continued intimidation and harassment by Zimbabwean security and intelligence forces;
• Whether the President will release the Report of the Donen Commission of Inquiry and whether the President will consider appointing an independent commission of inquiry into the allegations that the United Nations oil-for-food programme in Iraq was abused by South African companies and individuals

All three questions deal with serious and potentially criminal matters yet the Presidency under Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe rebuffed any attempts made by the DA to clear up the controversy and uncertainty surrounding these issues which included posing parliamentary questions to them.

The DA has been vocal in the past on how Parliament has increasingly failed to fulfill its constitutional obligation of exercising oversight over the Executive and holding it individually and collectively accountable at all times.

One of the mains reasons for this failure is disdain shown by the Executive towards Parliament and its oversight mechanisms and President Mbeki was one of the main culprits in this regard.

President Mbeki refused to answer questions about his conduct and the government's actions and this was exemplified best by the fact that on 1 November 2007 he failed to respond to a single written question submitted to him by the DA during the course of that year. His disdain towards Parliament's oversight role was emulated by a number of other Cabinet Ministers.

The DA believes that it is vital that the President leads by example when it comes to promoting the constitutional ideals of openness, transparency and accountability and we therefore welcome President Zuma's promise to not only promote these values over the next five years, but to also ensure that Parliament's constitutional independence is protected and its obligation of promoting oversight and ensuring the Executive is held accountable for its decisions and actions is upheld at all times.

We therefore call on President Zuma to take the questions we have posed to him seriously and to respond to them promptly and honestly.

President Mbeki's failure to address the many controversies surrounding the arms deal, the oilgate scandal and Zimbabwe defined his term of office and placed South Africa in a bad light.

The DA believes that as the country enters an era of national renewal, South Africans, now more than ever, have a right to this information and we therefore call on President Zuma to come clean on these issues and to put an end to the culture of secrecy and unaccountability that has dominated the Presidency and the ANC Government as a whole.

Statement issued by Athol Trollip MP, Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader, June 7 2009

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