Pretoria – Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Jeff Radebe, says government’s security cluster had approached the courts to request reasonable time to study, analyse and give comment to the Public Protectors interim report on the security upgrades in Nkandla.
Public Protector Thuli Madonsela has produced an interim report on her investigation into allegations of misconduct to the installation and implementation of security measures at the residence of President Jacob Zuma in Nkandla.
The security cluster on Friday made an urgent application to the North Gauteng High Court to prevent Madonsela from releasing the report. The application was postponed until Next Friday. Madonsela had requested a postponement to respond to the application.
“Given the importance of the processes that led to the compiling of the provisional report, as well as the report itself; we find the time given to the security cluster to respond to the report’s contents; to be wholly insufficient. Hence the need to approach the courts for interim relief,” said the minister at a media briefing in Pretoria on Saturday.
He said the Public Protector had written a letter on 1 November 2013 to the Minister of Public Works, Thulas Nxesi, explaining that she was presenting the interim report to him to provide him with an opportunity to raise any matter in the report which in his view could have an impact on or could compromise the security of the President and should therefore be omitted.
“In line with this request, the security cluster, in order to fully comply with its mandate, wishes to study the contents of the report to ensure that certain information contained in the report does not compromise national security; and in areas where this is potentially the case, propose remedial measures as requested by the Public Protector,” said Radebe.
He said the provisional report was a document of 357 pages, which contained matters relating to national security and security of the President as the Head of State and that Madonsela had spent close to a year investigating the matter and working towards its conclusion.
“In providing us the opportunity to comment on the provisional report before it is released to other affected, implicated and interested parties, the Public Protector recognises the legal obligation to ensure that the provisional report does not compromise national security and the security of the President as the Head of State.
“In this regard, it is critically important that the security cluster is afforded sufficient and reasonable time to study the report and provide comments on sections that may be of security concern. However, the Public Protector has, in our view, unreasonably denied us the opportunity to properly engage the report as requested by the Public Protector,” explained Radebe.
The ministers in the security cluster received the provisional report from the Office of the Public Protector on 1 November, along with a letter stating 6 November as the deadline for comment. This effectively gave the security cluster only three working days to study the report and give comment.
On 4 November, Nxesi requested an extension of time to submit written comments by 15 November, which would have afforded the ministers 10 working days.
“On 5 November, the Public Protector declined the request and granted an extension of two days, giving the security cluster until the 8th of November 2013 to respond. The Public Protector went on to state that she will proceed to release the provisional report on Saturday the 9th of November 2013 regardless of whether she receives our comments or not.”
The minister said media reports quoted Madonsela as confirming the release of the report on 9 November.
“On the 7th of November 2013, another request was made to the Public Protector to grant a deadline extension to the 15th of November 2013, to which the Public Protector did not respond. At this stage it became clear that the Public Protector was neither willing nor able to grant our request for a deadline extension and that we were left with no choice but to seek the intervention of the courts,” said Radebe.
The minister, who was accompanied by Minister of State Security Siyabonga Cwele, said as members of the executive, they respected the office of the Public Protector and fully supported its constitutional mandate and that it was important to cooperate with the office.
“It must be emphasised that government has no intention or interest in undermining the work of the Public Protector. On the contrary, government has consistently and transparently engaged on the matter following a probe that was conducted by government whose findings were announced to the public in January of this year.”
Radebe said the cluster welcomed the court order and the undertaking by the Public Protector not to release provisional report until the matter is finalised. – SAnews.gov.za
