DA will not be fooled by Nkandla Report Whitewash
Today's press briefing by the Security Cluster on the release of the Public Works Task Team Report on Nkandla was the clearest indication yet of the extent to which President Zuma's ‘fixers' will go to protect him from being held accountable.
South Africans will see through this poorly disguised ruse to ‘clear' President Zuma and provide shoddy - and at times ridiculous - explanations for the expenditure of public money on inexplicable luxuries.
This includes the frankly ludicrous attempt to explain the need for a ‘chicken run', a ‘cattle kraal', the movement of the tuck-shop, and the ‘fire-pool'.
It is in an insult to all South Africans, and a smack in the face of real accountability.
While we welcome the fact that the report is now in the public domain, something for which we have been relentlessly pushing for the last year, the report must now be fully interrogated for its accuracy, the process undertaken in its compilation, and especially, who was questioned and interviewed.
We therefore expect the report to be tabled before the Portfolio Committee on Public Works, where our MPs will scrutinise the report to the last detail. We will also expect the report to be fully debated in Parliament at the earliest available opportunity.
Too many questions about Nkandla remain unanswered.
How was President Zuma not aware of the excessive extent of the upgrade, despite being resident there?
Why was President Zuma not interviewed and questioned by the Task Team?
Why was the former Minister of Public Works, Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde not questioned by the Task Team, when there is a letter from her to President Zuma setting out the details of the Nkandla upgrade as early as 2009?
Why, despite every effort to block the report over the last year, has it suddenly now been made public?
The DA now looks forward to the release of the Public Protector's report on the same matter. As we have stated before, should the report allege that the President misled Parliament, we will consider tabling a motion to impeach him in terms of Section 89 of the Constitution.
We remain committed to doing everything possible to ensure all those at the very top are held accountable.
South Africa will not be fooled by cover-ups.
Statement issued by Lindiwe Mazibuko MP, DA Parliamentary Leader, December 19 2013
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