ANC chief whip welcomes Nkandla committee

March 2014 nkandla .

March 2014 nkandla .

Published Apr 10, 2014

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Cape Town - ANC chief whip Stone Sizani on Thursday welcomed Parliament's decision to establish an ad hoc committee on the Nkandla issue.

“The decision to establish the committee was taken in line with the applicable rule enabling the Speaker to establish a committee of this nature during a parliamentary recess and following consultation with the chief whip of the majority party and other parties, Sizani said in a statement.

The multi-party committee's mandate would be to consider President Jacob Zuma's response to Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's report on Nkandla and make recommendations, where applicable, he said.

On Wednesday, Parliament announced an ad hoc committee would be formed to consider the submissions made by Zuma in response to Madonsela's report on upgrades to his private Nkandla homestead in KwaZulu-Natal.

The decision was made by National Assembly Speaker Max Sisulu after he received Zuma's response to Madonsela's report last week, it said.

In his statement on Thursday, Sizani said “contrary to the opportunistic, misguided and deliberately misleading electioneering rhetoric” from the Democratic Alliance, the committee had nothing to do with either the “impeachment” or the DA's request for the establishment of a “committee to impeach” Zuma.

“It is natural that Parliament, as the supreme representative of the people in terms of our constitutional democracy, would develop a special process to consider a matter of national importance as this one,” he said.

Parliament said the committee would be made up of seven African National Congress MPs, two from the DA, one each from the Inkatha Freedom Party and Congress of the People, and one MP from the smaller parties.

It would determine its own procedure, frequency and time of its meetings.

“The committee is to report no than later April 30, 2014,” Parliament said.

Last month, Madonsela released her final report on security upgrades totalling R246 million at Zuma's homestead.

She found that Zuma gave the nod to all the upgrades and that he and his family unduly benefited from them.

These included a swimming pool, cattle kraal, and amphitheatre.

Madonsela also found that Zuma breached the Executive Members' Ethics Act.

She described the amount spent as unconscionable, and recommended that Zuma pay back a percentage.

Sapa

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