SACP STATEMENT ON THE REPORT BY PUBLIC WORKS
The SACP welcomes and notes the report released today by the Minister of Public Works into the upgrades currently underway at Nkandla.
The announcement has provided a breakdown of the expenditure and removed the myth that over 200 million Rands was spend on building houses for the President. The expenditure has been on government required security features not on the personal household of the President.
The report, interpreted jointly with the announcement by the Auditor General this week of money spend on consultants paints a gloomy picture of a government heavily reliant on consultants. This pattern paints a picture of a government that has been hollowed of capacity and requires that we act with speed to restore capacity of the state.
The SACP notes that those who have sought to elevate this matter in order to tarnish the image of President Zuma and not solve the problem are now disappointed but have already started to play the Public Protector against the report of the Minister. This form of engagement, mainly orchestrated by the DA, where people seek to raise complex societal challenges in order to score cheap political points is daily being exposed for its bankruptcy, deception and desperation. These professional critics are not interested in solving the problem of corruption we facing. They just want to throw mud at the ANC and President Zuma. They want power to themselves and nothing else.
The SACP has for sometime called for the need to strengthen mechanisms and regulations governing procurement and supply chain in the public sector. As things stand the existing mechanisms are weak and are easily manipulated by corrupt elements in the state colluding with unscrupulous business people. We support the Minister's referral of the report to law enforcement agencies for criminal actions and the immediate institution of disciplinary measures against officials involved. We also call on the companies involved to be barred from doing business with the state.
Statement issued by the SACP, January 27 2013
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