The African National Congress (ANC) was getting itself deeper and deeper into the mire of the Nkandla issue‚ and “the president‚ former public works ministers Geoff Doidge and Gwen Mahlangu‚ and other central characters in this sorry saga‚ must take a lie detector test on key questions regarding Nkandla“.
“We need the truth‚” the Congress of the People (Cope) said on Thursday.
“It is common cause that embezzlement on a grand scale took place at Nkandla. The ruling party had five years to take action but did nothing. Now it must try in vain to explain how tiled floors and showers in the kraal help to keep the president secure‚” Cope spokesman‚ Dennis Bloem said.
“Why did the president and the ruling party not take proactive steps beginning in December 2009 to address public concerns about expenditure at Nkandla? That would have saved taxpayers at least R180-million.”
Bloem said the ad-hoc committee on Nkandla was sitting five years too late.
“All parties are now totally shocked at the mountain of spending that brought forth a molehill.
“Pravin Gordhan‚ during the time when the Nkandla upgrades were in process‚ was demanding in Parliament that government had to find more bang for its bucks. Sadly‚ that did not happen. The expenditure at Nkandla was inexplicable and totally unjustifiable.
“If Parliament under the ruling party had enforced transparency and accountability‚ as constitutionally required‚ every political party would have agreed to proper security measures for the president and kept expenditure in sharp focus‚” Bloem said.