Johannesburg - From Nkandla to the lack of domestic inquiries into the Fifa 2010 World Cup corruption claims, the country’s economic troubles and politicking in the SAPS top ranks, it’s set to be a tough week in Parliament.
Political sparks are sure to fly on Tuesday in the parliamentary debate of the report by the ad hoc Nkandla committee, which agreed with the police minister’s verdict that President Jacob Zuma did not have to repay anything of the R215 million taxpayer-funded security upgrades at his rural homestead.
Stating there had been no value for money, the committee report also noted “South Africans were misled about the opulence of the private residence of the president” and recommended “the executive ensure all necessary steps are undertaken to ensure that the safety of the head of state and his family is not compromised”.
That official report was adopted on the back of ANC numbers in the committee, in a vote that defeated the opposition’s view that the police minister’s report must be rejected because it was unconstitutional and irrational.
Tuesday’s debate, and the widely expected adoption of the report as the ANC holds the majority in the National Assembly, might formally end Parliament’s role in the Nkandla debacle but will not end the saga itself.
The EFF has approached the Constitutional Court to be heard in its push for repayment, in line with the public protector’s findings.
Other political parties are expected to approach the courts too. Unlike the EFF, the other opposition parties participated in the ad hoc Nkandla committee to ensure they had exhausted all available avenues before turning to the courts.
Hours before Tuesday’s debate, the spotlight falls on SAPS top officials appearing before the police committee. But before MPs get down to how the SAPS is implementing the domestic violence regimen, the matter of provincial commissioners backing their embattled boss national commissioner General Riah Phiyega will be dealt with again.
Last week, top SAPS officers, and two national deputy commissioners, had to apologise in the wake of MPs’ criticism of them for stepping into politicking with their public statement supporting Phiyega, just after she had told the president why she should keep her job.
The Farlam Commission of Inquiry had recommended that she face an inquiry for misleading it. But a day after the unprecedented apology in Parliament, the top brass did not quite withdraw their controversial statement as instructed by MPs, but instead issued a statement as the board of commissioners reiterating the line rejected by MPs.
The initial statement was aimed at correcting misconceptions about disarray in the SAPS.
MPs expect to have the minutes of the meeting at which the provincial police commissioners’ backing of Phiyega was discussed in the presence of the national police commissioner. Why two weeks elapsed between the discussions at Magoebaskloof and the issuing of the controversial statement is just one of several outstanding questions.
The focus remains on policing on Wednesday, as the top brass brief MPs on Operation Fiela, or Sweep Clean, launched in the wake of the wave of violence against foreigners earlier this year.
The police committee is one of 27 meeting this week in Parliament, while National Council of Provinces committees hold oversight visits across the country.
Due to a pending legal appeal, the DA was unsuccessful in its motion for Zuma’s impeachment over the controversial departure of Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, who attended an AU summit amid court hearings for his arrest on two International Criminal Court warrants for genocide and war crimes.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane is scheduled to lead the debate on “the growing economic crisis facing South Africa”. Since being elected party leader, Maimane has put the economy at the centre of his party’s platform, raising stubbornly high unemployment and sluggish economic growth repeatedly as the core of his parliamentary statements.
During Wednesday’s questions to ministers in the social cluster, Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula will have to answer why he had not instituted an official inquiry into the $10 million (R128.2m) bribery allegations linked to the 2010 Fifa World Cup local organising committee.
In late May, the US attorney-general announced its investigation and several Fifa officials were arrested, as were two former soccer executives and four sports marketing officials.
At the time, Mbalula claimed a US smear campaign and insisted the money paid to the Confederation of North, Central American and the Caribbean Football Association in 2008 was for development.
The government is on record that South Africa had obtained a clean audit report on the 2010 Fifa World Cup from a reputable firm.
The Star