President Jacob Zuma on Sunday promised to let his Cabinet study a report by Public Protector Thulisile Madonsela that found he violated the executive code of ethics by failing to declare his interests in time.
“The report will be presented to Cabinet for a discussion after which the president will submit it to Parliament,” the Presidency said.
Madonsela branded Zuma “tardy” in her report, which was handed to the Presidency and the Democratic Alliance on Wednesday.
She recommended that it be submitted first to Cabinet for consideration and “decision on any action to be taken”, and then to Parliament.
By law, Zuma had to declare his interests within 60 days of taking office, but he missed the deadline by eight months and did so only after the press pointed out the oversight.
The DA then asked the Public Protector to investigate the matter.
Major challenge for the ANC
DA parliamentary leader Athol Trollip on Sunday said the report posed a major challenge for the ANC, as Parliament now had to decide how to handle the fact that the president had broken the law.
Trollip said it was problematic that the Act did not provide proper recourse for cases where the president himself had failed to live up to it.
“[Zuma] is now, in terms of the Act, required to apply his mind to a report about his own misconduct and report to Parliament what corrective steps he himself should follow.
“It is really a farcical situation.”
Madonsela proposed that the Executive Members Ethics Act be amended to introduce penalties for members of Cabinet who failed to abide by it, similar to those that apply to MPs who violate the Parliamentary code of conduct.
‘Special case’
The ANC said in March that it regretted that Zuma had missed the deadline to declare his assets, but said the circumstances needed to be understood.
“We have a special case, in that we are dealing with a president who has a large family and therefore it is not easy,” spokesperson Brian Sokutu said.
“We regret the fact that the deadline wasn’t met, but as I said before, it has to be understood,” said Sokutu.
“What you have to understand is the fact that the president has more than one wife and therefore it is a different set of circumstances, and we are asking people to really respect that. He hasn’t said that he is not going to comply.” – Sapa