CONSIDERATION OF THE REPORT OF THE AD HOC COMMITTEE ON THE REPORT BY THE PRESIDENT REGARDING SECURITY UPGRADES AT THE NKANDLA PRIVATE RESIDENCE OF THE PRESIDENT

STATEMENT BY THE HON. MR NAREND SINGH MP CHIEF WHIP OF THE INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY

National Assembly: 13 November 2014

Honourable Speaker; On 26 September the IFP withdrew from the Ad Hoc Committee on Nkandla because the ANC majority had deliberately crippled the Committee's work. Turning a blind eye to Rule 138, they refused to call the authors of the relevant reports to appear before Committee, and refused to seek legal opinion on the powers of the Public Protector.

An impasse was created which could only be resolved through the direct intervention of the President. Our nation rightly looks to its Head of State to uphold, defend and respect the Constitution, and to promote the unity of our nation and all that which will advance the Republic. In time of crisis, when our Constitution is under threat, these fundamental responsibilities are amplified.

In the interests of South Africa, our constitutional democracy, and settling this matter, the President should have intervened. He should have provided a mandate to his colleagues on the Committee to empower the Committee's work by, inter alia, allowing the President to answer our questions.

The President should have answered all outstanding questions from the reports of the Public Protector and the Special Investigations Unit. He should have complied with the remedial action prescribed by the Public Protector, and he should have reported to the National Assembly on all actions taken in this regard. For the sake of the office he holds, for the sake of accountability and setting the example; the President should have accepted paying a portion of the value added to his private residence.

And, as uppermost guardian of the Constitution, the President himself should have approached the Constitutional Court for a Declaratory Order giving legal certainty on the Public Protector's powers. But he did none of this.

The majority party Report now selectively quotes from Justice Schippers's Judgement in the Western Cape High Court, but conveniently ignores his emphatic statement that findings and remedial action of the Public Protector are not "mere recommendations which an organ of state may accept or reject." Honourable Speaker; the IFP rejects this Report as predetermined, politically-biased and embarrassingly deceptive. Not once does it admit to non-security upgrades; the swimming pool, the tuck shop, the amphitheatre, the cattle kraal and the chicken coop.

But the chickens have not yet come home to roost. New facts are likely to emerge from Mr Minenhle Makhanya's court case, and from the disciplinary hearings. Not surprisingly, rumours already abound that charges against officials will be dropped, presumably so they won't spill the beans.

The ANC has closed this matter in the worst possible way. Nkandla is now a permanent stain on the Presidency and the ruling party. They have protected one man; but opened a wound in our nation that will bleed forever.

Issued by the IFP, November 13 2014

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