Siyabonga Mkhwanazi
The Nkandla report faces fresh court action after the ANC muscled it through in Parliament yesterday, using its majority.
The DA’s Mmusi Maimane told Parliament yesterday they would challenge the Nkandla report in the high court this morning. The court action by the DA comes hot on the heels of the EFF’s in the Constitutional Court last week.
This is the second time in as many weeks that the report has been legally challenged by opposition parties because they believe the ANC is using Parliament to protect President Jacob Zuma so he won’t have to pay anything towards upgrades at his home.
Opposition parties des-cribed the Nkandla report as a whitewash before the ANC used its majority of 198 MPs against 93 opposition MPs to vote in support of the report.
The adoption of the report by the National Assembly has absolved Zuma of any responsibility regarding costs incurred for security upgrades at his house.
This was despite pleas by the ACDP and IFP that Zuma should at least pay a portion of the R246 million spent.
ANC deputy chief whip Doris Dlakude
said despite opposition parties having the opportunity to visit Zuma’s house they continued to peddle lies.
“There is no opulence at Nkandla, there is no security comfort. There is a need for further security assessment and the installation of security features on the floor in the police control room.”
Zuma had not been found guilty of any wrongdoing.
Veteran DA MP James Selfe said there was no way Zuma could not have been aware of what was going on. Zuma should have asked questions when construction was going on. Selfe supported remarks by Maimane that they were taking the matter to court. They want the court to set aside the ad hoc committee report, and for Zuma to stick to the findings of Public Protector Thuli Madonsela that he should pay back some of the money.
His colleague Glynnis Breytenbach said High Court Judge Ashton Schippers had found that if Zuma was not happy with Madonsela’s findings he could challenge them in court.
FF Plus member Corné Mulder said the ANC was running scared of Madonsela. “The ANC, the mighty national liberation movement, is scared of one woman, the public protector,” he said.
Deidré Carter, of Cope, said South Africa could not allow itself to sanitise a scandal. She warned that ANC MPs were deliberately running away from the truth.
A swimming pool could not be referred to as a fire pool. The whole Nkandla probe was a sham.
The IFP and ACDP also called for Zuma to pay back a portion of the money. They said while Zuma may not be happy with the findings of the public protector, her findings could not be ignored.
The ruling party had allowed Zuma to get away with murder, the opposition said.
Narend Singh, of the IFP, said Nkandla would follow Zuma.
No matter how much he tried to run, the courts would catch up with him, warned the opposition parties.