Pretoria - Opposition parties that walked out of Parliament’s Nkandla ad hoc committee last week are not leaving the ANC an open field, announcing on Friday they would compile and table a counter report to the one that will be produced by the committee.
They plan to release this report at the same time as the committee – now comprised of ANC members only – completes its report and will ask Parliament to consider it.
They are united around three main points: that the public protector’s report on Nkandla, as the product of a constitutionally enshrined, independent body, takes precedence over other reports before the committee; that her remedial actions must be complied with; and, as a consequence, President Jacob Zuma must pay back a portion of the costs of non-security features installed at Nkandla, as he was instructed to do.
In a joint statement released at a press conference in Joburg yesterday, DA parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane, EFF leader Julius Malema, Cope leader Mosiuoa Lekota and UDM leader Bantu Holomisa said the country faced a constitutional crisis because the ANC had used its majority in Parliament to “contradict and overrule the constitution”.
“The ANC has used the committee to deflect any and all liability from President Jacob Zuma for the R246 million he unduly benefited from at Nkandla,” it said.
They accused the ANC of trying to “whitewash” the truth about Nkandla and pin the blame on “minor government officials”.
The Special Investigating Unit has prepared criminal dockets against three former directors-general of the Public Works Department.
ANC MP and member of the ad hoc committee Mathole Motshekga earlier said it would be “absurd” for Zuma to pay back part of the Nkandla costs.
Pretoria News Weekend