Cape Town – The office of the public protector has confirmed that it will investigate former African Union Commission chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma for her abuse of VIP presidential protection services, as a private citizen, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday.
This followed the DA’s complaint lodged with the public protector’s office on April 18, DA spokesman Zakhele Mbhele said.
It was recently confirmed to Parliament by then acting national police commissioner Kgomotso Phahlane that Dlamini Zuma – President Jacob Zuma's ex-wife – continued to be protected by the VIP presidential protection unit while she travelled around South Africa for African National Congress campaigning.
"It has now been almost two months since the Dlamini-Zuma VIP scandal came to light and there are no indications that Police Minister Fikile Mbalula has yet put a stop to it. He is allowing an obscene bill to run up and South Africans know that it is the struggling taxpayer who is going to pay for it," Mbhele said.
Dlamini Zuma was a clear candidate in the ANC leadership succession race and her use of VIP presidential protection as she campaigned was clearly another ANC abuse of public money.
Dlamini-Zuma simply could not be given preferential VIP protection for ANC party business at the expense of the public purse. There were critical policing resource problems around the country which needed to be focused on.
Some of these problems included building more police stations and satellite police stations, capacitating family violence, child protection, and sexual offences (FCS) units, and reducing the backlog at forensic laboratories with more equipment and personnel.
The Dlamini Zuma VIP scandal showed that the ANC chose to protect their own leaders instead of protecting the citizens they were supposed to serve from the criminal threats on the streets and in their homes every day. The DA looked forward to a thorough and swift public protector investigation, Mbhele said.