Nkandla: FF Plus lodges a complaint with Public Protector and with parliament’s ethics committee

8 April 2016

The Freedom Front Plus has laid charges against the minister of Police, Nathi Nhleko, and the minister of Public Works, Thulas Nxesi, with the Public Protector as well as the ethics committee of parliament for misleading parliament.

The report the ministers had compiled on Nkandla found that all the upgrades at Nkandla had been security upgrades and that the president does not have to pay back any money. During the court case in the Constitutional Court, president Zuma offered to pay an amount for the upgrades at Nkandla.

The president is, therefore, paying for ministers Nhleko’s and Nxesi’s fire pool which has now suddenly become a swimming pool. It also goes for other upgrades the court mentioned in its judgment.

The only conclusion that can be made from this is that the relevant ministers had calculatingly misled parliament by finding that all upgrades were security upgrades, for which the president did not have to pay.

The Executive Members’ Ethics Act, 82 of 1998, prescribes that the Public Protector has to investigate breaches of the ethics code by members of the executive. The Act arises from Section 96 of the Constitution which determines how cabinet members may act.

Section 2.3(a) of the Code reads: “Members of the executive may not wilfully mislead the legislature to which they are accountable.”

The FF Plus is of the opinion that the Public Protector should investigate whether the ministers had misled parliament or not.

Section 8.2 of the Code reads: “A member must assist the Public Protector in the performance of the Public Protector’s functions under the Act.”

There are also questions whether the relevant ministers had assisted the Public Protector in fulfilling her duties or calculatingly made her job more difficult.

Because ministers are also members of parliament, the FF Plus has already asked in a letter that Parliament’s Ethics Committee also investigate their actions in this regard. The Ethics Committee was quick to haul members who had not declared their interests onto the carpet. We accept that they will be doing the same thing in this regard.

It is interesting that Mr. Zuma had signed the Executive Members’ Ethics Code on 20 July 2000 as acting president (Government Gazette: No 21399, Notice 41, Regulation 6853. Dated 2000/07/28.)

Issued by Pieter Mulder, FF Plus leader, 8 April 2016