THE re-establishment of the ad hoc committee on Nkandla would test Parliament’s credibility in how it carries its constitutional mandate to hold the executive arm of government accountable, says constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos.
He was one of the original complainants that led to Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s report into the R246m worth of publicly funded security upgrades at President Jacob Zuma’s private Nkandla residence.
On the weekend African National Congress (ANC) chief whip Stone Sizani said Parliament would restart the ad hoc committee on Nkandla once Mr Zuma had sent the legislature his letter on what he plans to do.
The Nkandla ad hoc committee was constituted during the fourth Parliament and was dissolved in May on the eve of the May 7 elections.
The committee’s mandate was to consider the report of the public protector on the security upgrades at the Nkandla homestead, the president’s written response thereto, and consequential action for any wrongdoing.
Mr Sizani’s spokesman, Moloto Mothapo, said on Monday: “There is nothing new in what the chief whip said. We (ANC) have always said we will support any mechanism Parliament may put in place to process the response of the president as and when he submits it to Parliament.”
Mr Zuma missed his own deadline of submitting that letter to Parliament in the middle of this month saying he was awaiting the outcome of the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) report.
SIU head Vas Soni told Parliament at the beginning of the month that his unit’s report would be delayed as it had only just then been given access to Nkandla and that two unnamed people were not co-operating with their responses to the SIU inquiries.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) said it would make an “important” announcement regarding the reconstitution of the Nkandla ad hoc committee on Tuesday.
“To date, the president has failed to provide such a written response to the public protector’s report, missing his self-imposed deadline of 16 July 2014,” the DA statement read. Mr de Vos said he did not know what else could be done to speed up the reconstitution of the ad hoc committee. “The point is that Parliament has received the facts as stated in the public protector’s report to guide it. Now two things have to be done. The first is the criminal prosecution of those who have done wrong and the second is holding those accountable who made the political decisions.”
Mr de Vos said the Nkandla matter was still relevant as it was about the accountability of spending public funds.
- BDLive
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