/ 21 October 2013

Madonsela’s Nkandla report done – now where to send it?

Public Protector Thuli Madonsela.
Public Protector Thuli Madonsela. (Madelene Cronje, M&G)

Public Protector Thuli Madonsela has "virtually finalised" the provisional Nkandla report but does not know to whom she should hand it, SABC television news reported on Monday.

"I have now virtually finalised the provisional report. We have now asked government to indicate how far they are with deciding where these kind of reports should go to. We haven't had an answer yet," she told the public broadcaster.

Madonsela said she encountered "unusual challenges" while compiling the report into the upgrade of President Jacob Zuma's home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal.

"The Nkandla report … yes, I don't want to talk about some of the journey, challenges that we faced with that one. I think people will see in the report what are some of the issues that arose as we went through it. But yes, it has had unusual challenges.

"The one issue though that will arise, which we have raised with the presidency … is who do we give the report to," she said.

'The conduct of the president'
"You will recall that one of the investigations that I did in my early phases as public protector was about the conduct of the president and we didn't know then who to give the report to.

"With the new one, we would have hoped that by that time they would have implemented their undertaking to amend the act, so there's a different place to send the report to. That amendment has not been done."

Last year, the Democratic Alliance said it would ask Madonsela to investigate whether Zuma's family improperly benefited from the upgrade to his home.

Shortly before that, Zuma told Parliament that government was paying to upgrade the security at his home, but that he had taken out a bond to pay for the rest of the upgrade. – Sapa