National key points: What is Mthethwa hiding?

The DA has, through parliamentary questions to a series of government departments acquired a list of national key points in South Africa. This comes after repeated requests to the Minister of Police, 

Nathi Mthethwa - under whose watch all national key points fall - for a comprehensive list of all key points and the criteria used to classify them. Minister Mthethwa has consistently refused to provide us with this list, claiming that this is due to security considerations.

However, the Departments of State Security, Home Affairs, Health, Science and Technology, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and several others, have without hesitation supplied us with a list of all the key points falling under their departments.  Minister Mthethwa's refusal to supply us with this list thus begs the question: What is he trying to hide? 

Minister Mthethwa claims that his department has conducted an audit of all national key points in South Africa, which he committed to tabling in Parliament at the end of August. What is of real concern is that he has refused to provide a list of the current key points and only commits to revealing a ‘revised' list after the audit is complete. Worryingly, he has also refused to provide a list of private residences that are protected under this Act. 

I will write to Minister Mthethwa to request the following:

• The date on which he will table the complete audit of the national key points in Parliament. 
• A comprehensive list of all the current key points, including private residences and the criteria used to classify them as such.
• An explanation of how it is that the original list of key points will threaten national security, while the "revised" list to be tabled in Parliament will not.

It is becoming clear that Minister Mthethwa's reluctance to provide a list of the current national key points and criteria used to classify them is yet another effort to shield President Zuma from accountability for the R200 million in government expenditure on his private Nkandla home. 

With elections looming, President Zuma and his cabinet inner circle will do everything possible to continue the Nkandlagate cover-up. The DA will not rest until the entire national key points list is made public so that South Africans may see where their hard-earned money is being spent. 

Statement issued by Lindiwe Mazibuko MP, DA Parliamentary Leader, September 25 2013

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