Durban - National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete has denied reports that she wants to “censor” the report on the upgrades to President Jacob Zuma’s homestead before it goes to Parliament. Mbete is offering a confidential briefing to opposition MPs.
Her spokeswoman, Mandlakazi Sigcawu, told Cape Argus sister newspaper the Daily News on Sunday that the Speaker’s intention was to merely consult with the opposition to find out which committee should receive the report.
This is after Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko revealed in a parliamentary response that his report on Nkandla was ready and he was waiting for a response from Parliament on when he should table it.
City Press reported that Mbete, citing the need to handle sensitive security information carefully, had offered opposition leaders a confidential briefing by Nhleko in return for them agreeing to handle the Nkandla report in secret before an edited version is presented in Parliament.
She had reportedly said the secrecy was necessary as the report contained sensitive information relating to Zuma’s security.
Sigcawu hit back at the claims that Mbete had been trying to censor the report. “It’s damned if you do or damned if you don’t,” she said. “The Speaker has always been chastised as not been consultative in her approach. The minister now says he has the report and he is ready to present it to Parliament, and what does the Speaker do? She consults political parties. The meeting she called was to ask them how we approach this matter, which committee should this report go to because that is how the Parliament processes go.”
“It does not just go to the National Assembly or the National Council of Provinces; it needs to go via the appropriate committee. There was a special Nkandla committee set up for (Public Protector) Thuli Madonsela’s report, but that was an ad hoc committee, which does not exist now. “That is partly why the Speaker needed to consult with the political parties. It has nothing to do (with censoring). She has not seen the report herself. So what should be censored there?
DA parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane said they would not be party to any secret process to cover up Zuma’s alleged financial liability for the upgrades to his private residence at Nkandla. “From our meetings with Speaker Baleka Mbete this week, it was agreed that the Nkandla ad hoc committee will be reconstituted in order to deal with the minister of police’s determination and report, and then report back to the National Assembly,” he said.
“We will not be co-opted, behind closed doors, into agreeing to a sanitised version.”
Meanwhile, the DA has calculated that Zuma owed South Africans R52.9 million for non-security upgrades at his home.
Daily News