The report relating to upgrades at President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla homestead will be released by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela on Wednesday.
This comes as political pressure mounts on Madonsela, over some of her other recent investigations.
Agriculture minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson, for one, is legally challenging adverse findings against her, by the public protector.
“I believe that her office has disrespected the office of the president by not sending him an official version of her report three months after the report is due,” Joemat-Pettersson has said.
Madonsela responded with: “She has a right of course not to be satisfied with any part of my report. The right procedure would have been for her to refer the matter to the President and wait for him to apply his mind.”
All of this is largely seen as part of a wider campaign to discredit Thuli Madonsela, as she prepares to release her much-anticipated report into the more than R206-million upgrade at President Zuma’s private residence in Nkandla.
A cloud of controversy has surrounded what has been described as security upgrades at the homestead in KwaZulu-Natal.
In November, the Mail&Guardian reported that Madonsela had found in her preliminary report that Zuma had misled Parliament and benefited substantially from the upgrade.
An inter-ministerial task team report on the Nkandla expenditure was released in December, after it was declassified, confirming that a total of R206,420,644 was spent on the upgrade.
Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi, who initially classified the report, said at its release that allegations that Zuma had used state resources to build and upgrade the residence were unfounded.
If the president is deemed to have benefitted personally from any of the renovations, he could be held financially liable.
And if he’s found to have misled Parliament over his knowledge of the upgrade, DA Parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko says her party will demand Parliament be reconvened, to debate a motion to impeach Zuma.
The ANC has deemed the report political, and feels the timing and neutrality of an investigation involving the president so close to an election should be questioned.
This report is close on two years in the making.
Its release date was expected to be around February 9, a few days before President Jacob Zuma's state-of-the-nation address, but Madonsela extended the deadline for responses at the request of one of the parties.
Madonsela has been criticised by the African National Congress for her handling of the probe, with the party's secretary general Gwede Mantashe accusing her of trying to "muddy the waters in the election campaign".
Madonsela has dismissed this claim.
Nonetheless, the outcome of her report and the reaction of political parties are likely to affect the psyches of many South Africans, come Election Day on May 7th.
* Watch a special feature "Impoverished Nkandla residents ‘forgotten’ by Zuma" in the gallery above, along with eNCA reporter, Nickolaus Bauer's video report into the political pressure mounting against Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela.
No comments:
Post a Comment