Thursday, October 31, 2013

Nkandla report should be submitted to parliament

Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's provisional report on President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla homestead should be submitted to Parliament, ANC Chief Whip Stone Sizani said on Wednesday.

"Both the president and the Public Protector are appointed by, and are accountable to, Parliament in terms of the Constitution," Sizani's spokesman Moloto Mothapo said in a statement.

Madonsela's report would be submitted to concerned parties this week.

On October 23, Madonsela questioned the government's delay in changing the law determining to whom she should hand reports concerning the presidency.

At a Black Management Forum conference at the time, she said she had advised the government about the problem three years ago and asked it to change the law.

She said when it came to investigating members of the executive, the report was normally given to the president, but now it was tricky as the report was about him.

On Friday, Madonsela's spokesman Oupa Segalwe said Madonsela was awaiting feedback from the presidency after she enquired about the law reform process to "clarify the competent authority to receive the report".

Mothapo said there were sufficient oversight mechanisms available to the Public Protector to deal with any eventuality in her scope of operation.


"In an event that the Public Protector may not issue findings of an investigation to the president due to lack of clarity in the act governing the conduct of the executive, Parliament should be the competent oversight authority to deal with such a report.


"...[Madonsela's] inferences in the media regarding lack of an oversight mechanism over the president and regarding her predicament have unfairly projected the president and his executive as law unto themselves who do not want to be held accountable."

- Sapa

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