Nkandla: Report to exonerate Zuma

President Jacob Zuma. AFP    

Article by Gaye Davis

 

Parliament's ad-hoc committee on Nkandla can't find that President Jacob Zuma was unduly enriched by the multimillion rand improvements to his private KwaZulu-Natal home.

That's the thrust of advice to the committee by a Parliamentary legal advisor.
The committee sat until late on Thursday night considering its draft report.

Both Public Protector Thuli Madonsela and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) found Zuma did unduly benefit from the upgrades.

Madonsela found that Zuma benefitted unduly from the upgrades, including the amphitheatre, visitors' centre, cattle and chicken kraals.

But Parliamentary legal advisor, Ntuthuzelo Vanara, told the Nkandla ad-hoc committee that Madonsela is not qualified to judge this.

"It is common cause that the Public Protector is not a security expert. That much she has accepted in her report."

The committee also found the president did not breach the Executive Members Ethics Code, instead placing the blame at the door of apparent rogue officials and a failure of ministerial oversight, and appears set to exonerate him.

The committee meets again next week.

The deadline for its final report and recommendations is November 14..

Source
http://news.iafrica.com/sa/969882.html