National
'No limits in Nkandla inquiry'─── 07:42 Wed, 20 Aug 2014
Cape Town - President Jacob Zuma's controversial Nkandla homestead will finally come under parliamentary scrutiny after the green light was given to establish another ad hoc committee.
Parliament yesterday resolved to set up the committee, with ANC chief whip Stone Sizani saying he was "giving a blank cheque" to the DA and other opposition parties to deal with Zuma's response to the public protector's report on the R246-million "security upgrade" to his Nkandla home.
Earlier, his DA counterpart, John Steenhuisen, objected to Sizani' s draft resolution that the ad hoc committee only concentrate on the response Zuma filed last week, limiting the scope of the investigation.
After a debate in which Sizani told Steenhuisen that he "was spoiling for a fight", the ANC chief whip made it clear that the special committee was established in terms of the National Assembly's rule 138.
The rule allows National Assembly committees to summon any person to give evidence or produce documents.
Said Sizani: "Honourable speaker, I am disappointed at the DA because they had always expected that we will oppose the ad hoc committee. Now that it's us who are moving it they are suspicious that we may want to kill it.
"We are giving them a blank cheque. We're saying everything that will enable that committee to conduct its business is available."
He said the committee would look into the reports from the public protector, the cabinet's security cluster, parliament's joint standing committee on intelligence and the Special Investigating Unit as well as Zuma's response to all these reports.
The committee will be made up of 11 members - six from the ANC, two from the DA, one from the EFF and two from other smaller parties. It has a deadline of October 24.
A final report by the ad hoc committee will determine whether the Nkandla saga will be closed or whether further intervention is needed.
Timeslive
