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Johannesburg — The office of the ANC chief whip yesterday claimed that a “DA mob… started howling and hurling insults” at police officials during a site inspection organised for the media at President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla home yesterday. “The media inspection had hardly began when DA members led by the DA chief whip [John Steenhuisen] and spokesperson Phumzile van Damme disrupted the process and started howling and hurling insults at the police members who were guiding the media,” spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said in a statement.
“The office of the ANC chief whip is outraged . . .”
Mothapo said the disruption stopped journalists from asking substantive and probing questions regarding the security upgrades to Nkandla.
He also claimed that the DA’s behaviour was not in keeping with MPs oversight function.
“The DA’s well-orchestrated disruption of the media site inspection not only deprived the public who rely on media [for] the facts regarding the President’s residence, but also served to distract attention from the important oversight work of the ad hoc committee.”
Earlier, the in loco inspection of 21 South Africa National Defence Force houses degenerated into an argument between the visiting delegation and the Democratic Alliance.
The tour was supposed to be for the media, said officials from the presidency and the police ministry, complaining that DA officials kept interrupting them with questions. “We aren’t here for the DA,” said lead inspector Zwile Zulu, from the Police Ministry, threatening to halt the inspection of the barracks.
The media was taken on a tour of the 21 SANDF houses, which were said to have cost R135.2m to build.
Steenhuisen said the DA rejected the office of the ANC chief whip’s statement.
“They’ve been involved in the cover up for Jacob Zuma brigade all along. We are members of Parliament… we did not enter the private residence. I personally wanted to see the barracks,” he told News24.
“We won’t let the ANC dictate to us how we perform our oversight work.”
Journalists would only have limited access to Nkandla. They would be allowed to inspect public places but would not be allowed to accompany the parliamentary ad hoc committee onto the Nkandla premises. The next stop on the media tour would be the clinic. — AFP
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