/ 8 March 2010

Zuma waits on legal advice over financial interests

Zuma Waits On Legal Advice Over Financial Interests

President Jacob Zuma has started compiling a list of his interests and is ready to declare them should legal advice indicate he has to, his spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, said on Monday.

“People should also appreciate that while the president has been waiting for clarification from the legal team, he has also instructed that a submission be declared for purposes of declaration in the event that it was found that he has to declare,” Magwenya told the South African Press Association.

On Monday the opposition Democratic Alliance said it would ask the Public Protector to investigate whether Zuma had violated section 5 of the Executive Ethics Code by not declaring his interests within 60 days of taking office in May last year.

President Jacob Zuma kicked off his first state visit to the United Kingdom on Wednesday 3rd March. His visit includes discussions on Zimbabwe sanctions, reassuring investors on the nationalisation issue, visits to Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, 10 Downing Street and more.

Magwenya said he wanted it known that it was “the president through his office that publicly disclosed that he has not declared his financial interests”, he said, referring to questions put to the office and then reported on in the Sunday Independent.

“It is not as if the president was hiding anything,” he said.

The president was committed to running a transparent, open administration and that is why Zuma told the publication that he had not disclosed his financial interests.

If the president was hiding something he would not have given such an open and forthright response, continued Magwenya.

He had wanted to declare his interests, but there was a difference of opinion in his office on whether he was required to.

‘The process is already under way.’
His attorney, Michael Hulley, is currently handling the matter, which includes verifying the interests of his large family and dependent children, which is expected to take some time. Zuma has three wives and 20 children.

“That process is already under way. He will want to see it completed as soon as possible.”

Meanwhile, instead of putting his feet up after his British state visit last week, Zuma will be travelling to the Johannesburg headquarters of the African National Congress for its traditional Monday meeting.

In the last weeks, Zuma has had to weather a storm about a love child he fathered in an extra-marital relationship, been pilloried by some sections of the British press for his marital lifestyle choice and had his abandoned corruption charges dredged up again.

It is customary for the ANC not to discuss its Monday meeting agenda with the press, but weekend reports spoke of animosity between some sectors of the ANC and its alliance partner, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), and murmurings of unhappiness about Zuma’s achievements regarding economic issues, job creation and social problems.

Lifestyle audits
Cosatu has recently called for lifestyle audits of politicians and ministers.

General secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said over the weekend: “When we raised this issue, they said ‘No! You are putting us on the spot’,” he said at a South African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union meeting in Durban on Saturday.

Vavi said the union federation believed that the issue of lifestyle audits was crucial in the fight against corruption in the public sector.

“We believe that you cannot be a people’s champion during the day but at night you count shares that have been obtained through exploitation,” he said.

He said MPs, members of provincial legislatures and local councillors should be audited to prevent conflict of interests.

“We believe that the reason why they are rejecting it is because there are too many people who are involved in this practice,” he said.

He said life audits would not be done unless unions imposed it on them.

“The majority of ANC members are against corruption and patronage.”

There had been attempts to silence him and to divert the union’s attention, he said.

“They started by saying that I had a R6-million house and they also said that my wife was involved in tenders. They failed to bring proof,” he said. — Sapa