Parliament remains last line of defence against state capture - DA
The DA says President Cyril Ramaphosa’s response to the findings of the Zondo commission confirmed Parliament remains the last line of defence against state capture.
Ramaphosa addressed the nation on Sunday on the response to the recommendations of the commission of inquiry into state capture.
DA spokesperson Siviwe Gwarube says the president provided an analysis of the commission instead of what the executive intends to do.
"The president simply provided an analysis of the Zondo Judicial Commission report instead of stating what the executive he leads intends to do to insulate government processes from grand theft again.
"Much of what the president said was existing work that is already being done by law enforcement agencies. Nothing was said about bolstering their capacity to do the kind of investigative work that is needed to prosecute those who plundered public money.”
Gwarube adds: "More glaringly, the president completely avoided making any announcements about cabinet ministers who have been implicated in state capture and how he will be holding them to account. This is firmly within his mandate and yet he made a vague mention about looking into this."
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Gwarube says little action will be taken after it took the commission six years to complete its work.
"The reality is that roughly R1 billion and six years have been spent on this commission, yet little action will be taken. This is why Parliament must finally affirm its role as an independent arm of state that is constitutionally obliged to hold government to account.
"The Speaker of the National Assembly, Nosiviwe Mapisa Nqakula, has effectively abdicated Parliament’s responsibility to this process and stated that the institution should wait for the President to table his implementation report. This is despite the fact that Parliament did not need to wait for the President before undertaking a review on its oversight mechanisms.
"The DA will now be writing to the Speaker to place this on the agenda of the Programming Committee to be held this week. An action plan must be developed to action the wide-ranging recommendations of this judicial commission.”
