ANC MPs must apologise to South Africans one by one: Cope

16 February 2016 - 14:02 By TMG Digital

The Congress of the People (Cope) wants them to do it “by stepping up to the podium‚ one by one”.The party’s Dennis Bloem said it is an “opportune time” for the African National Congress (ANC) members of Parliament to tell “the nation that they are sorry” for misleading them‚ and “apologise unconditionally to the public protector”.Bloem said he hopes the ANC’s Cedric Frolick and Mathole Motshekga‚ who chaired the “fraud” ad-hoc committee on Nkandla and portfolio committee on justice respectively‚ “will lead their colleagues in this regard”.“They have all been deeply shamed and exposed‚” he claimed.“Their credibility is destroyed. Now is the time for them to begin redeeming themselves.”Frolick and Motshekga also featured on the list of the dozen “most dishonourable MPs ” named by Bloem on Monday for being the ANC’s representatives on the ad hoc committee to “process Police Minister Nathi Nhleko’s report on the excessive upgrades at the Nkandla residence of President Jacob Zuma”.“The manner in which they processed the report shows that they were bum suckers‚ not honourable members of Parliament alive to their responsibilities to the nation‚” Bloem said then.On Tuesday‚ Bloem said “had warned the ANC and opposition parties very loudly not to participate in that illegal ad hoc Nkandla ad hoc committee”.“We warned them that by participating in that committee they would be undermining the Constitution of the country and impeding the powers of the public protector. “All of them ignored our call. Cope is vindicated. The president caved in at the Constitutional Court fearing a declaratory order [saying he had failed in his constitutional obligations] being made against him.” Cope’s president Mosiuoa Lekota will participate in Tuesday’s debate...

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