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Cape Town - The DA is set to table a motion in Parliament on Tuesday demanding a committee be set up urgently to probe the Nkandla controversy, failing which it will take the matter to court.
DA federal executive chairperson James Selfe said President Jacob Zuma was deliberately undermining the office of the public protector.
This was by failing to respond in full to her findings on the R246m upgrade of his private homestead in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, for more than 130 days after she gave him two weeks to do so.
This, Selfe said, flew in the face of section 181 of the Constitution, on which the DA would base an eventual court application.
"The DA will consider launching a court application to compel the president to submit his full and comprehensive response, so as to end this unconstitutional undermining of the public protector.
"This will become necessary should our motion today to establish the Nkandla ad hoc committee not see immediate outcomes."
Section 181 of the Constitution obliges organs of state to help and protect Chapter Nine institutions, like the public protector, to ensure their effectiveness.
In her report, titled "Secure in Comfort" and released in March, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela found Zuma had benefited unduly from the work at Nkandla and should pay back a portion of the money spent to the state.
At the weekend, ANC Chief Whip Stone Sizani said Parliament would reconstitute an ad hoc committee on Nkandla once the president made his written submission to Parliament to indicate how he planned to handle the matter.
But DA parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane said this commitment lacked a clear timeframe. The opposition therefore feared the president was likely to delay his response further.
"It is very open-ended and in many ways gives the president an open cheque to do in this instance as he pleases. So in the absence of a deadline for the president to submit his reply, and his current trend for feet-dragging in other matters, we hold no confidence and no weight to the statement that was issued by the ANC."
