Public Protector Thuli Madonsela says the chaos gripping parliament is a result of the government’s failure to act on the damning findings in her report on the R215-million upgrades to Nkandla.
In an interview on the BBC TV programme Hard Talk, Madonsela rubbished suggestions that her report, titled “Secure in Comfort”, had contributed to the polarised atmosphere of the fifth democratic parliament.
Madonsela was responding to suggestions that consternation over her findings had led to the latest scuffle in the National Assembly, in which Economic Freedom Fighters MP Reneilwe Mashabela was dragged out of the chamber by riot police after she called President Jacob Zuma “a criminal” and “the greatest thief in the world”.
Madonsela said it was the government that needed to accept the blame.
“With due respect, if the government had done what the law requires it to do, that scuffle . would never have happened,” she told interviewer Zeinab Badawi.
In her report, released in March, Madonsela found that Zuma had contravened the constitution, and his oath of office, by failing to prevent a disproportionate amount of public money being spent on his private residence. She said he had benefited unduly from the Nkandla ”security upgrading” and should pay back some of the money.
Yesterday, she said ANC MPs had failed to act in accordance with the law when they rejected her report. Essentially, they had broken their pact with South Africans.
Before Madonsela released her findings, the ANC, and its alliance partner the SACP, accused her of using the report as a political tool by allegedly delaying its release intentionally until the eve of the May general elections.
And, relying on their numerical advantage – and in spite of a walkout by opposition parties in the ad-hoc committee – ANC MPs absolved Zuma of wrongdoing at Nkandla.
Zuma, when he eventually responded to the public protector’s report, challenged her authority, saying her findings were not judgments “to be followed under pain of a contempt order, but rather useful tools in assisting democracy in a co-operative manner, sometimes rather forcefully”.
The president has not, however, brought his challenge of Madonsela’s powers before a court as required by law.
Madonsela told Hard Talk: “Everything that happens in government has political implications. . although my investigations constitute administrative scrutiny, they will have political implications because they are about whether or not the politicians, who signed a pact with the people of South Africa that they were going to look after their collective power and collective resources, have done so in accordance with the constitution or have done so in accordance with the law.
“I said they didn’t. Obviously, politically they would say they were right. The thing is we have to go back to the values in the constitution,” she said.
Not even the ANC’s 62% electoral win absolved the executive from scrutiny, said Madonsela.
“Nobody has ever said the ANC should stop governing, but the fact that the people have retained any particular political party to govern doesn’t mean that they are saying they [politicians] must abuse their resources or power … [It] also does not mean that the people are absolutely happy with the conduct of every person in government,” she said.
