Johannesburg -
Cope condemned on Sunday what it called an attack on Public Protector Thuli Madonsela by the security cluster of ministers.
“The Public Protector is only investigating and making her investigation public,” Congress of the People MP Dennis Bloom said in reference to the provisional Nkandla report.
“This attack on her is nothing else but to get rid of her, just like they got rid of the Scorpions when the Scorpions were exposing members of the ruling party involved in corruption.”
The report on the R206 million upgrade of President Jacob Zuma's homestead at Nkandla, in KwaZulu-Natal, was given to the security cluster on November 1, following a special request for access ahead of all other parties to establish whether the report's contents would compromise Zuma's security.
The cluster wanted more than five days to study the document, but Madonsela declined the request.
The cluster then filed an urgent application in the High Court in Pretoria for more time to peruse the report before it was given to the affected parties.
The court postponed the matter to Friday.
On Thursday, the cluster withdrew the urgent application, saying it had already obtained Ä through the court process Ä the extra time it needed to study the report.
On Friday morning, the State said it would pay the legal costs.
Bloom said Cope wanted to know what the ministers were so afraid of and why they wanted to keep the information away from the public.
“This is taxpayers' money that was used at Nkandla.
“Cope calls upon all peace-loving South Africans to rally around the Public Protector and support her in the good work that she is doing for this country,” he said.
The cluster submitted its response on Friday to Madonsela's provisional Nkandla report. - Sapa