Cape Town - Opposition parties are set to call for President Jacob Zuma’s removal from office during Thursday’s parliamentary debate on the Nkandla ad hoc committee report, which cleared the head of state of any responsibility for the R215 million taxpayer-funded security upgrades.
In an unusual move indicating the impact of the Nkandla debacle on the broader body politic, seven of the 12 opposition parties at Parliament combined forces behind this call – and committed themselves to joint court action to challenge any rubber-stamping efforts to absolve the president of accountability.
“If we don’t do that, we’ll be allowing a situation where the country sinks deeper into a constitutional crisis,” explained UDM chief whip Nqabayomzi Kwankwa.
“It can’t be right that President Jacob Zuma’s cows live in a kraal that (cost) actually 10 times more than the price of an RDP house, or maybe more…
“We don’t mind if he pays for it, but it is at our expense, the taxpayer’s expense,” he added in reference to the Nkandla R1m cattle kraal.
On Wednesday the seven opposition parties tabled their own alternate Nkandla report ahead of trying to get it formally submitted in the House during Thursday’s debate.
However, the parliamentary standing of this opposition report remains doubtful.
The official parliamentary Nkandla report was compiled by only ANC MPs without the opposition parties’ participation after they walked out.
The ANC has described this walkout as a dereliction of duty – and on Wednesday said the opposition Nkandla report was nothing but a “DA-sponsored propaganda brochure”.
DA parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane defended the walkout decision.
“No outcome on the Nkandla scandal where the ANC is prosecutor, judge and jury for President Zuma can have any validity,” Maimane said.
Freedom Front Plus MP Corne Mulder said there had been no other choice, describing the ANC’s efforts over the Nkandla debacle as “trying to market toothpaste with a garlic flavour”.
The public would not stand for it, he added.
EFF chief whip Floyd Shivambu said: “We know from the beginning they (ANC) wanted to use opposition parties as a means of legitimising…
“Being the majority does not always mean you are correct.”
The opposition parties’ alternate Nkandla report is the outcome of a series of behind-closed-door meetings over several weeks. While a call for removal from office for serious violation of the constitution or the law, serious misconduct or inability to perform the functions of office needs a two-thirds majority in the House, numbers the opposition simply do not have, it is a step towards ensuring all measures are taken before a motion of no confidence in Zuma is brought.
This is in line with a Western Cape High Court ruling last year, which said Parliament needed to fix the “lacuna” in its rules on motions of no confidence – this has been done – but also required all possible steps to be taken before it came to such a motion of no confidence which, according to the constitution, requires only a simple majority.
Said Maimane: “Until such time as Jacob Zuma accounts for the massive undue benefit he received personally at Nkandla, the threat of legal action against him will remain front and centre in our programme of action.”
With the DA, UDM, FF+, EFF and Cope now joined by the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) and AgangSA, the position of the IFP is expected to unfold on Thursday. It is understood the IFP was not quite ready to join the other opposition parties, but will indicate its position after this morning’s party caucus.
The opposition parties’ Nkandla report said the blame could not be laid at the doorstep of officials only.
“The scheme starts with ‘Big Man’ politics as is increasingly evident in the ANC.
“The president is called ‘Number One’. (Former president) Thabo Mbeki used to be called ‘The Chief’ and that culture is the hallmark of the President Zuma administration…
“Thus when ‘Number One’ wants something – from a favour for his friend Gupta to security upgrades for his home, he usually gets it without question,” the report headed “Report of the Opposition in Parliament” says.
Political Bureau