Baldwin Ndaba and Luyolo Mkentane
NO deal with President Jacob Zuma.
This was the response of EFF leader Julius Malema yesterday as he rejected outright Zuma’s out-of-court settlement offer to settle the costs for non-security upgrades at his Nkandla home.
“It is his (Zuma’s) typical way of trying to control everything and attempt to influence the court. He was supposed to communicate to us the litigation, but chose to communicate directly with the courts to influence the judges.
“He wanted the judges to see him as a reasonable man,” Malema said.
On Monday night, Zuma wrote to the registrar of the Constitutional Court and made an out-of-court settlement offer to pay for non-security upgrades at his Nkandla home.
In his affidavit, the president also proposed that such an amount should be determined by the Treasury office of the auditor-general and the finance minister.
Yesterday however, Malema, who made the main application in the Concourt for Zuma, was having none of it.
Malema said the offer was Zuma’s tactic to buy time. Malema and the EFF set preconditions for Zuma.
According to them, a settlement could be reached only if Zuma agreed to endorse the remedial action proposed by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela in her March 2014 Nkandla report, “Secure in Comfort”, into the R246m upgrades.
Malema said Zuma must affirm that Madonsela’s recommendations were binding and vowed that “otherwise we must go (back) to court”.
“By failing to implement the remedial action of the public protector, (Zuma) would be in breach of the constitution and the oath of office,” he said.
Malema also took a swipe at various politicians, especially government ministers who rejected Madonsela and told her that “she was not God” and her report was not binding.
“They did not have a right to behave like that,” Malema insisted. He hurled insults at Zuma, equating him to a “crook” while labelling his government ministers his “drum majorettes”.
“The fact that President Zuma made an offer to pay back the money was an admission that he did not protect the public purse,” Malema said.
“He destroyed the executive and Parliament because of his selfishness.”
The EFF said they expected thousands of people to descend on the Concourt on Tuesday to support their #PayBackTheMoney campaign.
A defiant Malema added that next week’s State of the Nation address would only go smoothly if the president starts his address by explaining his decision to sack former minister of finance Nhlanhla Nene.
“Otherwise we are going to share the State of the Nation with Zuma and the white shirts,” he said, referring to the security guards that were previously called in to remove EFF MPs.