Sizani attempts to ‘clear his conscience’ over Nkandla: DA

04 March 2016 - 14:38 By TMG Digital

“No amount of revisionism” on the part of Stone Sizani will change the fact that the African National Congress (ANC) “misused it’s majority in Parliament to protect the president instead of holding him accountable”. That’s how the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) John Steenhuisen summed up what he called the former chief whip of the ANC in the National Assembly’s “attempt to clear his conscience”.Steenhuisen‚ Sizani’s erstwhile counterpart in the official opposition‚ said the DA was “pleased that the outgoing chief whip has seen it fit to put on the record the ANC’s caucus’ position before he is deployed to the diplomatic corps”.Steenhuisen said‚ according to comments in Friday’s Mail & Guardian‚ “Sizani now claims that Police Minister Nathi Nhlekho’s report on the security upgrades to President Jacob Zuma’s private home at Nkandla - which found that the president and his family did not unduly benefit from the upgrades in question - is now ‘irrelevant’ ”.He quoted Sizani as saying the ANC caucus has been “consistent in [our] position that President Zuma needed to pay back a portion of the Nkandla money in line with the public protector’s decision”. Yet‚ argued Steenhuisen‚ “during all three Nkandla ad hoc committees members of the ANC caucus‚ led by him‚ went to great lengths to discredit Public Protector Thuli Madonsela‚ and her report Secure in Comfort both in Parliament and public”.“She was repeatedly denied an opportunity to brief the committee on her report and the proposed remedial actions therein‚ and was berated by ANC MPs such as Mothole Motshekga whenever her office made budgetary presentations to Parliament‚” he added.“At present we are awaiting the Constitutional Court’s ruling on the force and effect of the Public Protector’s remedial action and are hopeful that the highest court in the land will set aside Parliament’s conduct in this saga.”This would be a test for Sizani’s successor‚ Doris Dlakude‚ who with the speaker of the National Assembly‚ Baleka Mbete‚ “must give expression to section 55(2) of the Constitution and diligently consider the rescission of the NA’s adoption of the police minister’s report that erroneously absolved the President from all liability in this regard”. “The ANC in Parliament must make it right and ensure that it never happens again if Parliament is to reaffirm its commitment to the Constitution to which all members are duty-bound to do‚” said Steenhuisen...

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