Nkandla accountability call ‘premature’

21/11/2013, Making his point: Cosatu president S'dumo Dlamini during a media briefing in Braamfontein. Picture: Adrian de Kock

21/11/2013, Making his point: Cosatu president S'dumo Dlamini during a media briefing in Braamfontein. Picture: Adrian de Kock

Published Dec 19, 2013

Share

Johannesburg - The call for accountability by Numsa over the upgrades to President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla homestead is premature, Cosatu president S’dumo Dlamini said on Thursday.

“It is not basically a wrong call, but a call prematurely made,” he told reporters in Johannesburg.

Dlamini said Cosatu was calling for the speedy release of the report but warned against jumping the gun until facts were put on the table.

“It is therefore disingenuous to make a call for the state president to account while you don't even know what the report says.”

On Wednesday, National Union of Metalworkers of SA general secretary Irvin Jim said if the leaked Public Protector report on the upgrade to President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla home was true, then there had to be accountability.

“There is no justification for spending R200 million on the house of the president,” he told delegates at Numsa's special national congress in Boksburg, on the East Rand.

“If the leaked report is true, we will demand accountability from the department of public works and the president himself.”

Last month, the Mail & Guardian reported that Thuli Madonsela had found in her preliminary report that Zuma had misled Parliament, and benefited substantially from a R206 million upgrade to his homestead in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal.

Dlamini called on union leaders to be accountable themselves. He said if the call for accountability was a noble call, it should refer to all leaders.

“They should account for their members' moneys, should account how and where they are leading workers to,” he said.

Sapa

Related Topics: