By Emsie Ferreira
Sapa
Public Protector Thulisile Madonsela has found President Jacob Zuma guilty of breaching the executive code of ethics.
In her report, handed to the the Democratic Alliance, which asked her to investigate Zuma's delay in declaring his interests, and the Presidency, Madonsela brands Zuma as "tardy".
The Executive Members' Ethics Act required that Zuma declare his interests within 60 days of taking office, but he missed the deadline by eight months and complied only after the press pointed out the oversight.
Zuma promised yesterday to let his cabinet study the report.
"The report will be presented to the cabinet for discussion after which the president will submit it to Parliament," the Presidency said.
Madonsela found "the president's failure to comply with the time requirements of the Executive Ethics Code and his conduct constituted a breach of section 5.2 of the code".
She recommended that her report be submitted first to the cabinet for consideration and "a decision on any action to be taken", and then to Parliament.
Madonsela said Zuma was not the only culprit in the cabinet.
There was a "systematic pattern of non-compliance" by a significant number of cabinet members in declaring their interests correctly and within the prescribed period.
Madonsela said Zuma "indicated he regretted the delay" in declaring his interests.
His declaration lists such diplomatic gifts as items of clothing and bedding from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. His declaration of assets and liabilities is in the confidential section of the register of members' interests.
The DA's parliamentary leader, Athol Trollip, said the report underlined a lack of accountability in politics.
"This report is critical because it goes to the heart of the issue of accountability, so contested in South African politics."
Trollip said Madonsela's findings posed a major challenge for the ANC because a Parliament it dominated now had to decide how to deal with the president's having broken the law.
This would be problematic as the act did not provide proper recourse for cases where the president himself had failed to comply with it.
The DA would table an amendment, Trollip said.
"(Zuma) is now, in terms of the act, required to apply his mind to a report about his own misconduct and report to Parliament what corrective steps he himself should follow," he said. "It is a farcical situation."
Madonsela's report also pointed to shortcomings in the act that needed to be dealt with. These included resolving the anomaly of submitting a report on the conduct of the president to the Presidency and the need to introduce penalties for cabinet members who breached the ethics code.
Madonsela called on Parliament to impose for cabinet members, with effect from June, the same penalties for breaching the Executive Members' Ethics Act as applied to MPs who violated the parliamentary code of conduct.
These range from a reprimand to a maximum fine of a month's salary and a 15-day suspension from the National Assembly.
Madonsela urged Parliament to report back to her by July 1 on its decision about penalties.
The Presidency noted the recommendations and said it welcomed the report's "forward-looking and constructive nature".
Madonsela also said Zuma's office had been correct in being concerned about the lack of clarity in section 4.2, which says members of the executive - who included the president - should get permission from the president or a premier to keep gifts of more than R1 000.
The Presidency said it was because of anomalies in the act that Zuma had failed to declare his interests within the prescribed time.
These included confusion about whom the president should ask for permission to accept gifts worth more than R1 000.