DA in new Nkandla ConCourt challenge

Published Sep 13, 2015

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Cape Town – The Democratic Alliance will seek direct access to the Constitutional Court in a matter relating to the public protector’s report on the R246 million upgrades to President Jacob Zuma’s private homestead at Nkandla in rural KwaZulu-Natal, the party said on Sunday.

Legal certainty about the powers of the public protector and the force and effect of remedial action taken by the public protector were vital to the successful functioning of South Africa’s constitutional democracy, DA federal executive chairman James Selfe said in a statement.

That was the reason the DA took the SABC and the minister of communications to court when they disregarded the remedial action ordered by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela to suspend SABC chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng and to institute disciplinary proceedings against him.

This case was heard in 2014, and while Judge Ashton Schippers granted the order the DA was seeking – forcing the SABC to suspend Motsoeneng and to subject him to disciplinary proceedings – this judgment was appealed.

The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) would hear the matter on Friday, but whichever side was unsuccessful would almost certainly appeal to the Constitutional Court, Selfe said.

“Simultaneously, the DA will tomorrow (Monday) file a founding affidavit seeking direct access to the Constitutional Court in a matter which has already been enrolled in the Western Cape High Court relating to the public protector’s report on Nkandla.

“While the DA’s contentions are similar to those of the EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters, which has also approached the Constitutional Court on the matter), they are not identical,” Selfe said.

Specifically, the DA argued that Zuma’s failure to engage rationally with the public protector’s findings and remedial action pertaining to him was manifestly irrational, illegal, and unconstitutional.

“We furthermore contend that the president’s decision to substitute the remedial action ordered by the public protector with a decision that the police minister report on whether he was liable for any of the costs was illegal and unconstitutional.

“Moreover, the DA argues that the National Assembly’s ad hoc committee’s endorsement of the police minister’s report was similarly irrational and should be set aside, as should the decision of the National Assembly to accept the report of the ad hoc committee.

“We hope that the Constitutional Court will consider all three cases in order to provide legal certainty about the public protector’s powers. The law has been developed in some degree in the Schippers judgment. We trust that the SCA will further develop it, and that the Constitutional Court will rule definitively on the matter,” Selfe said.

African News Agency

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