Parliament – MPs from the ruling and opposition parties on Tuesday agreed to shorten their draft report on Police Minister Nathi Nhleko’s findings on the Nkandla controversy to curtail disagreement ahead of a Friday deadline to table it to the National Assembly.
The proposal came from Steve Swart from the African Christian Democratic Party after some three hours of debate as to whether the rough draft accurately reflected the various parties’ views put forth in response to a briefing by Nhleko.
“We should simply say the minister briefed the committee and members deliberated on his views. The salient points raised by members can be summarised later in the report,” he said.
“The minutes will also reflect exactly which member said what if there is a dispute.”
The proposal was readily accepted by Cedric Frolick, the ANC chairman of the ad hoc committee mulling Nhleko’s report in which he concluded, in direct contradiction to Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, that President Jacob Zuma is not liable to repay the state for luxuries added to his private home at Nkandla during a security upgrade.
“You will receive a new version of the draft report at 10 am tomorrow and the committee will reconvene at two in the afternoon,” he said.
MPs are, however, expected to clash when it comes to scripting the committee’s recommendation, which were left blank in the rough draft.
But Frolick said he was confident that the report will be submitted to the National Assembly by Friday. No date has been set yet for it to be debated by the House, which is expected to rubberstamp the minister’s conclusions.
In the meanwhile, opposition parties are gearing up for a legal challenge of the parliamentary process on the basis that is has ignored Madonsela’s findings.
On Monday, Madonsela took the extraordinary step of calling a media briefing to challenge the basis of the ministerial report, saying she had directed the president to ask National Treasury, in conjuction with the police service, to determine how much he should pay back to the state for features that did not relate to security.
Nhleko found that each of these, including, controversially a swimming pool, were related to security.
ANA