Shhhh… Multi-million rand Nkan

Shhhh… Multi-million rand Nkandla upgrade declared top secret

Not even even Auditor General Terence Nombembe and Public Protector Thuli Madonsela will be able to see the long-awaited report on Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla upgrade.

Shhhh… Multi-million rand Nkan

Zuma - Brand SA

The report that many have been waiting for, containing details on President Jacob Zuma’s multi-million rand upgrade on his Nkandla residence, has now been declared a top secret document.

Thulas Nxesi, the Public Works Minister, announced earlier on this week that as the State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele had confirmed the presidential task team’s report in terms of the Minimum Information Security Standards (MISS), it would not be made available to the public.

Zuma is accused of using more than R200 million of taxpayers’ money for renovations at his KwaZulu-Natal homestead.

Many people have been awaiting the release of the report for close to three months. National Assembly Speaker Max Sisulu is said to be among those waiting for Nxesi to publicise the Nkandla report. It had been believed that the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence would be dealing with aspects of the upgrade such as changes related to the security but that other parts including the construction, over-charging and fraud would be referred to other committees.

However this has not been the case and this high security decision will mean that even the Auditor General Terence Nombembe and the Public Protector Thuli Madonsela will be unable to see the report.

It is currently being argued that as MISS was never actually passed through Parliament and was only created by the Cabinet that it cannot be classed as a legally-binding agreement.

Many ministers are now fighting to have the upgrade details publicised.

DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko told the Cape Times that the DA would table a motion in the Joint Standing Committee of Intelligence in the hope that the report would be sent back to Nxesi.

Following this act the minister must then “submit to Parliament a redacted report, which must be made public before the relevant, open portfolio committees.”

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has said that he hopes the Nkandla spending details will be released to the public soon as “from a government point of view we want to know who overcharged, to what extent and how do we recover the money.”