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INLSA<\/p>\n
President Jacob Zuma’s private residence in Nkandla. File Photo: Bongiwe Mchunu<\/p>\n
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Related Stories<\/p>\n
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Cape Town – The Department of Public Works spent 260 percent more to beef up security at Nkandla for \u201cone man\u201d than it did to build a high-security prison in Kimberley for hundreds of inmates, Parliament heard on Thursday. <\/p>\n
Some details of the security upgrading of Nkandla were revealed in the National Assembly on Thursday, soliciting an angry response from Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi, who wants the details of a task team report on the upgrade to be discussed by MPs behind closed doors and \u201cin camera\u201d if necessary. <\/p>\n
In a letter to the Speaker of Parliament, Max Sisulu, Nxesi said he felt that tabling the report in Parliament would be tantamount to debating a state security matter in public. <\/p>\n
\u201cTherefore I propose that the report be tabled and dealt with by a parliamentary committee responsible for security matters or that a mechanism be devised by Parliament that will permit the matter to be discussed without compromising the security of the president and his immediate family,\u201d said Nxesi. <\/p>\n
But during the sitting of the National Assembly on Thursday, DA MP Anchen Dreyer read out a list of the companies who provided some of the security measures at Nkandla, including park homes, a high-security fence, a mobile generator, bullet-proof glass and a lift. <\/p>\n
She said payments were made to these contractors for what seemed to be \u201cbona fide security measures at Nkandla\u201d amounting to R117 million. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo put this amount into context, the Department of Public Works built a new jail in Kimberley with top-range security for R45m, but spent R117m, exactly 260 percent more, to provide security for one man.\u201d <\/p>\n
She said that in his letter to Parliament, Nxesi requested that the Nkandla report be dealt with in an \u201cappropriate structure\u201d which would show regard to the \u201csensitive nature of the information in the report\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis sounds very much like a request for the report to be handled behind closed doors. The DA insists that this report must be dealt with in an open committee so that all the details regarding this scandal are made public. Anything less will continue to shroud this report in secrecy and prevent real action being taken against those implicated in it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Dreyer said the DA would ask Sisulu for the committee not to meet in secret. <\/p>\n
Responding to Dreyer, a visibly irritated Nxesi said it was public knowledge that there were irregularities with suppliers and pointed out that Sisulu had announced that his department was ready to share the report with a \u201cspecial committee\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy problem is that the honourable Dreyer is not even ready to follow her own logic because she\u2019s been calling for the report, but now she keeps on coming with the information in dribs and drabs from her informers. I am not sure what the honourable Dreyer exactly wants,\u201d said Nxesi. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga said his office welcomed Nxesi\u2019s decision to subject the report to \u201cparliamentary scrutiny\u201d. <\/p>\n
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He said matters pertaining to the security details of the head of state were similar to those normally dealt with by the joint standing committee on intelligence, \u201cwhich conducts its business in-camera\u201d. <\/p>\n
Political Bureau <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INLSA President Jacob Zuma’s private residence in Nkandla. File Photo: Bongiwe Mchunu Related Stories R117m spent on Nkandla security: DA Holomisa wants Nkandla inspection Nkandla report may be withheld from public Nkandla consultants paid R49m: DA Nkandla report to be tabled Cape Town – The Department of Public Works spent 260 percent more to beef […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-18738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18738\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}