ANC blocking Nkandla debate, says DA

Reuters

The government task team report on R206 million in security upgrades to President Jacob Zumas Nkandla home is to be tabled in Parliament, but it is not clear whether it will be made public.

Durban - The ANC and the DA have again clashed over a parliamentary debate on President Jacob Zuma, but this time over his Nkandla residence.

The DA has hit out at the ANC for “blocking” a debate about Nkandla as well as one about the constitutionality of the National Key Points Act, an apartheid-era law in terms of which Nkandla is protected from public scrutiny.

The latest row over what MPs get to debate follows the opposition wanting a vote of no confidence in Zuma last year.

The taxpayer-funded upgrading of Zuma’s Nkandla residence has been a controversial topic since it came to light last year, not least because it is costing R206 million.

DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said that at Wednesday’s Chief Whips’ Forum meeting, the ANC rejected her notice of motion for debate on “Nkandlagate”.

“This is despite the DA being allocated the space in the programme to have one of its motions debated on this day. When we proposed as an alternative the motion by DA MP Anchen Dreyer on the constitutionality of the National Key Points Act, this was also rejected by the ANC MPs on the committee. This position is equally problematic given that Deputy Minister of Public Works, Jeremy Cronin, has himself admitted that this archaic act is unconstitutional,” said Mazibuko.

She claimed that the ANC was determined to do everything in its powers to protect Zuma from scrutiny on Nkandla.

“The DA will be raising this decision to block our motion at the National Assembly programming committee meeting tomorrow (Thursday), and we hope that the Speaker of the National Assembly, Max Sisulu, will intervene,” said Mazibuko.

She said that for as long as the spending of R206m on the residence went unchecked, “this scandal will remain a symbol of the government’s failure to fight corruption”.

ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga said that the ANC had “reserved its support” for the DA’s proposal to have parliamentary debates on the president’s residence in Nkandla and on the constitutionality of the National Key Points Act.

“Our position is that a parliamentary debate on the president’s residence at this stage is unhelpful… This is because the matter is currently under formal investigation and the findings have not been made,” said Motshekga. He said institutions such as the Office of the Public Protector must be afforded space to do their work “without undue political influence from Parliament”.

The DA intends re-tabling the motion of no confidence in Zuma as soon as the Constitutional Court has heard its application, which arises from the High Court dismissing an application to force the debate to be held late last year. The matter is set for March 28.

Political Bureau