Nkandlagate: Nxesi’s frantic spin reveals how weak his case is Lindiwe Mazibuko MP Parliamentary Leader of the Democratic Alliance On Monday, 30 September 2013, I announced that I had made application to the Western Cape High Court for an order compelling the Department of Public Works to provide me with a copy of the Public Works Task Team Report into the upgrade of President Jacob Zuma’s private residence in Nkandla. The Minister of Public Works, Thulas Nxesi, has since released a press statement in which he attributes my court application to “political point-scoring”. What Minister Nxesi clearly cannot grasp is that my application to the High Court is a an entirely separate process to the investigations being undertaken by the Public Protector and the Auditor General into President Zuma’s private home upgrade. In addition, Minister Nxesi delibrately fails to acknowledge that it is his determination to protect President Zuma from accountability at all costs - by keeping the report from the public, claiming that it has been classified “Top Secret”, and then trying to bury it in Parliament’s closed Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence - which has brought us to this juncture. The reality is that the task team report into Nkandla was authored to account for the R200 million spent on President Zuma’s private home. It is in the public interest that this report - in addition to the Public Protector’s report, the Auditor-General’s report, and every other document emanating from an investigation into this matter - is made public. What the Minister has failed to acknowledge in the midst of his public indignation is that he is at the centre of a cover-up of the biggest scandal involving the abuse of public money during President Zuma’s term in office. Minister Nxesi would do well to recall the following: - Over a year ago, when this scandal first broke, it was he who committed to the public and Parliament that the Department of Public Works would embark on an investigation to establish how it was that the government came to spend over R200 million on the president’s private home. The DA warmly welcomed this move. - Several months later, when the Public Works investigation had been completed, it was he who did a u-turn and told the public and Parliament that he would not be releasing the report after all. The DA urged him to re-consider his position in the public interest, release the report and table it in Parliament for public deliberation. - After much lobbying by the Official Opposition and the South African people, Minister Nxesi eventually agreed to table the report in Parliament for scrutiny by MPs. The DA warmly welcomed this move. - But, in yet another u-turn, Minister Nxesi went back on his commitment by slapping a dubious “Top Secret” label on the Task Team report and demanding that the Speaker of the National Assembly, Max Sisulu, send the report to the Joint Standing Committee on Intellligence, which meets in secret, and whose members are bound by oath not to reveal the content of their deliberations. - After numerous communications to both the Minister and the Office of the Speaker, challenging the validity of this so-called “classification” – which we maintain has no standing in law – the DA submitted a Promotion of Access to Information (PAIA) application to obtain this report in an effort to make it public. Minister’s Nxesi’s Department gave no reply to our application, which, according to 28 (1) (b) of this Act, is deemed a refusal. - On 21 June 2013, the DA appealed the Minister’s decision in terms of section 75 of PAIA. Our appeal was rejected on entirely spurious grounds. Minister Nxesi held that our appeal was “premature” as the report had been sent to the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence (JSCI). - In his rejection of my application, Minister Nxesi was required, in terms of Section 77 (5) of PAIA, to give adequate reasons for his decision as well as clarify the provisions of PAIA which his decision relies upon. He did none of this. It is Minister Nxesi who has failed to adhere to the legislative requirements of PAIA. It is he who has failed in his responsibility to make public a report whose transparency is in the public interest. And it is because of his delaying and cover-up tactics over the past year that the DA was forced to approach the Western Cape High Court. Minister Nxesi should save his indignance for himself and his department, because it is they who have brought us to this point today. The DA welcomes Adv. Thuli Madonsela’s announcement this morning that she has gathered all the information she needs to conclude her own investigation into the Nkandla upgrade, and will soon make her preliminary report into this matter available to all affected parties. I look forward to the finalisation of this investigation and the Public Protector’s Report being made public. The fight against the abuse of public funds at the highest levels of our government cannot happen behind closed doors. South Africans deserve to know who is responsible for the abuse of their public money. Nothing short of making the report public will be acceptable for this purpose.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Oct 2013 08:56:42 +0000
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