Another delay tactic by government?
With the elections behind us, President Jacob Zuma and the government's antics have some people questioning their vote.
In a damming move, government announced on 15 May it would take Public Protector Thuli Madonsela to the high court for a judicial review of her Nkandla report.
According to a statement, government believes some of Madonsela’s findings and recommendations are irrational, contradictory, and are informed by material errors of law.
Madonsela has responded by saying government’s actions are premature, as the matter should be debated in Parliament first. She said if no common understanding of the report could be found, the matter should be heard in court, but not before that.
While it was naive for anyone to think that Nkandla was done and dusted or that government would simply follow and abide by Madonsela’s findings, such a move will only further tarnish the ruling party’s reputation and give Zuma critics more ammunition.
To make matters worse for Zuma, former ANC MP Ben Turok has said Zuma knew about the upgrades at Nkandla – a fact Zuma has denied in the past.
Turok said, “The president knew about it because he was there and he complained. He said ‘please don’t put windows there and put them there and there’.”
While many people may concede that Zuma is a busy man who does not have time to project manage the upgrades to his homestead, I find it hard to believe he did not know what was going on. Surely, at the very least, one of his wives would have mentioned how lovely the home was looking over dinner or in passing. If the president truly did not know what was going on, that is a problem in itself.
The ANC has said in the past that corruption needs to come to an end, yet there seems to be misconduct on the president’s own doorstep. There is no hope for South Africa if government claims ignorance on this one.
Instead of delaying the matter, government should be proactive to get to the bottom of the Nklanda issue.
