Nkandlagate report cover-up deepens: Classification invalid
The Minister of Public Works, Thulas Nxesi, in a letter to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Max Sisulu, has revealed that the Public Works Task Team Report into President Zuma's private home in Nkandla has been ‘classified' as "Top Secret" by the Minister of State Security, Siyabonga Cwele in terms of the Minimum Information Security Standards (MISS).
MISS was created in December 1996 by cabinet setting out national information security policy. The document never passed through Parliament and as such cannot be considered law.
This confirms the DA's position that the report has not been ‘classified' in terms of law and that the referral of the report to the Joint Standing Committee of Intelligence is invalid.
Given this invalid classification, the DA will table a motion in the Joint Standing Committee of Intelligence that the ‘Nkandlagate' report be sent back to Minister Nxesi, without delay. The Minister must thereafter submit to Parliament a redacted report, which must be made public before the relevant, open portfolio committees.
The Minister must also submit copies of the report to the Public Protector and the Auditor General, which he has admitted have not been given a copy because of the ‘top secret' status of the report.
It is clear from this latest development that there has been deliberate political intervention from the outset with respect to the Nkandlagate report. It remains unclear why the Minister of State Security was involved in an investigation into Public Works tender fraud in the first place. In terms of paragraph 1.2 of MISS, the responsibility for "grading" documents rests with the institution from where it originates; in this case, the Department of Public Works.
The DA will be submitting parliamentary questions to ascertain whether the Department of State Security intervened in order to conceal this report, or whether Minister Nxesi voluntarily sent the report to the Department of State Security in order to ensure that its contents would be kept secret.
Regardless, it is now clear that there has been a deliberate effort to conceal all the contents of this report - even those that relate to non-security items -as part of a concerted effort to shield President Jacob Zuma from accountability.
Now that the truth about the invalid classification of this report is out, the Minister of Public Works must do what is right and make the report public without delay.
Statement issued by Lindiwe Mazibuko MP, DA Parliamentary Leader, June 20 2013
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