READ AND MAKE YOUR OWN CONCLUSION:- Thabo Mbeki, former President of the RSA, was subject of public, media and DA scrutiny on security features installed by the state in his retirement house in Houghton. This caused the DAs Douglas Gibson leading an entourage of interested persons and visited the house in question. 2006 Noseweek Magazine reported that the house’s special features are like something out of a James Bond movie. Next door to Mbeki’s first floor office is the siege room, encased by steel shutters which drop down in the event of an attack. And, it is rumoured, in case things get too hot and evacuation is the only option, there’s to be a secret underground escape tunnel! Some political parties in parliament reacted as ff.: 1. ID leader Patricia de Lille said: Quite frankly, I couldn’t care less how much the house cost, as long as the money comes from the Mbekis. The provision of security for a retired head of state is their right. 2. Bantu Holomisa of UDM said, It shows a lack of ownership and pride in this country and its institutions as much as it shows a complete disregard for the right to privacy of every citizen. 3. Kenneth Meshoe, of the African Christian Democratic Party, said This, we believe, is a disrespectful approach and it is unfortunate. It is the ACDP’s opinion that the DA should, at the very least, apologise to the president and his wife. 4. Pan Africanist Congress MP Temba Godi said, On behalf of the PAC, I wish to join those who are sufficiently sane in condemning the conduct of the DA on this matter before the house. This whole tragic episode is the intention of besmirching the standing of the country’s president. We condemn this callous lack of respect for leaders of the liberation movement by remnants and defenders of the old order. We condemn! We rebuke! We censure. 5. Azapo MP Pandelani Nefolovhodwe: Azapo believes that this is a racist attitude and there is no question of it not being a racist attitude. This attitude must be wiped off from our democracy and we must work tirelessly to reform some of the members of this Parliament. 6. Zingisa Mkhuma, writing for the Saturday Star, asked, I can’t help wondering: if the president were John Vorster, would Gibson have ever come close to the house, let alone bring the media in tow? 7. Thee then Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, said, Gibson’s conduct was indefensible and lacked all forms of common decency and (was) unbecoming of a senior parliamentarian. This political focus on Gibson seemed to result in the press conveniently forgetting their own role in the affair. 8. Sunday Times projected Douglas Gibson of the DA as Mampara of the Week for amongst other things visiting the private property of the President. 9. Thee then Public works minister Thoko Didiza said, I want to say, honourable members, without any equivocation that we, as members of the house, owe Mrs and Mr Mbeki an apology for the way in which one of us (Douglas Gibson of DA) has acted. Gibson was duly censured by the National Assembly, but refused to apologise. There was no further interrogation of the public money spent on Mbeki’s house.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Apr 2014 15:39:21 +0000
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