On Monday, Public protector Thuli Madonsela intends to set the record straight.
“The public protector is of the view that, left uncorrected, the misstatements and distortions have a potential to undermine and erode public confidence in her office, an important independent institution charged with strengthening the country’s constitutional democracy through public accountability,” her spokesperson Kgalalelo Masibi said on Friday.
On Thursday evening, Parliament’s Nkandla ad hoc committee used its ANC majority to vote against calling Madonsela to be questioned about her report into the R246-million upgrades to President Jacob Zuma’s rural KwaZulu-Natal homestead.
Addressing the ad hoc committee on Thursday, ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga said Madonsela had misled South Africa about Nkandla.
“We should not, and cannot, apologise when we say the report of the public protector is misleading and has misled the nation,” he said.
In her report, released in March 2014, Madonsela recommended that Zuma repay a reasonable amount of the money spent on non-security related features, like the swimming pool, visitor’s centre, cattle kraal, chicken run and amphitheatre.
In his own report, released on May 28 this year, Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko found that all those features were necessary for Zuma’s security and he did not have to pay a cent for them.
Madonsela said Zuma misinterpreted her recommendations when he appointed Nhleko to compile a separate report. Madonsela said Zuma had to, with the help of the treasury and police, determine how much he should pay back for the non-security features. – News24