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Cape Town – Parliament’s ad hoc committee on Nkandla is expected to meet on Tuesday to discuss a draft report it has compiled on the matter.
At its last meeting on Thursday, the ANC members on the committee used their majority to vote against a proposal made by IFP MP Narend Singh to call Public Protector Thuli Madonsela to address them on her findings about spending on President Jacob Zuma's homestead.
They also voted against a proposal to call several other people that had been involved in the Nkandla saga, including former public works minister Geoff Doidge, Nkandla architect Minenhle Makhanya, Nkandla project manager Jean Rindel, the quantity surveyor, and the two people who drafted the Special Investigation Unit’s report on Nkandla.
The committee, chaired by the ANC’s Cedric Frolick, made a site visit to Nkandla on July 22. It was found that some of the upgrades had fallen into disrepair and that more money than necessary was spent.
The ad hoc committee was established by National Assembly Speaker Max Sisulu in April 2014 to study submissions made by Zuma in response to Madonsela's report.
In her report entitled Secure in Comfort, released in March 2014, Madonsela found Zuma and his family had unduly benefited from so-called security upgrades worth R246m to his residence.
She recommended that he repay part of the money spent on non-security upgrades, like the swimming pool and amphitheatre.
The committee was dissolved on April 29 2014, after the ANC used its majority on the committee to vote that the matter stand over for Parliament to consider after the May 7 elections that year.
It was re-established in August that year. Since then it has considered Police Minister Nathi Nhleko’s own report on Nkandla, released in May this year.
Nhleko found that all of the upgrades, including the amphitheatre, cattle kraal, chicken run, visitors’ centre, and swimming pool, were necessary for Zuma’s security and that he therefore did not have to pay for them.
