Parties lash out at Nkandla committee

THE ANC is deliberately delaying the work of the parliamentary ad-hoc committee of inquiry into the improvements to President Jacob Zuma's private homestead at Nkandla to let him off the hook, DA federal chairman Dr Wilmot James says.

James told a DA public meeting in Hartenbos, outside Mossel, Bay at the weekend that the ANC in parliament was sure to take the full 10 days they were allowed to nominate their members to the ad hoc committee, which would, in reality, leave the committee only two days to finish its work, given the April 30 deadline and the number of holidays before then.

DA leader Helen Zille was supposed to address the meeting of more than 1500 supporters at the overflowing Walvis Hall, but left for Johannesburg to support DA Gauteng premier candidate Mmusi Maimane, leading to some major mumbling among the party faithful in the Southern Cape, a powerhouse region for the DA.

The crowd was, however, whipped up in a frenzy of dancing and cheering by music groups and the oratory of Western Cape DA leaders Dr Ivan Meyer and Theuns Botha.

Botha said Zuma was "not a president, he is a disgrace". He called ANC provincial chairman Marius Fransman a fool and called on the crowd to kill off the ANC's chances of ever again governing the province when they vote on May 7.

Meanwhile, the United Democratic Movement has rubbished parliament's move to establish the ad-hoc committee to deal with the Nkandla report.

Speaking to a capacity crowd at Gompo Hall in Duncan Village on Saturday at the launch of the UDM's Eastern Cape manifesto, the party's Eastern Cape candidate for the premier's seat, Bantu Holomisa, said he was not confident the multi-party committee would achieve much. The UDM has been excluded from the committee.

Holomisa said parliament should have waited until after the election, when a new crop of politicians joined parliament.

"The entire committee is a waste of time and taxpayers' money. As UDM we are saying we should rather wait for a new mandate [after the elections], because this current parliament has failed dismally to deal with corrupt elements and this will not be an exception." - Jan-Jan Joubert and Asanda Nini