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Public Works has hit back with shock at an accusation by the Democratic Alliance that Minister Thulas Nxesi had misled Parliament by saying that he had complied fully with a request from Treasury to supply all building plans and documentation for non-security upgrades to President Jacob Zuma’s home in Nkandla.
DA MP Alf Lees claimed on Sunday that Nxesi was incorrect to state in a written Parliamentary reply that all documentation had been submitted to Treasury so that it could calculate the cost of Zuma’s liability.
Lees claimed this “directly contradicts” Treasury’s report that was handed in to the Constitutional Court in June.
The Treasury report, which determined that Zuma owed R7.8 million, noted that drawings were incomplete or incorrect and the final “as built” drawings or the bill of quantities were not included.
But Nxesi’s legal adviser Phillip Masilo explained yesterday that Nxesi was correct to confirm to Parliament that all documentation that was available was forwarded to Treasury.
“Nkandla was a project gone wrong. It was not properly managed. How can the minister be blamed if the plans and drawings he submitted didn’t reflect the structures that were built? The minister could not add certain things or manufacture information. He provided Treasury with all the documents in his possession, whether complete or not.”
Treasury understood this, he said, and did not point fingers at the minister when it submitted its report, he said.
Nxesi had inherited Nkandla and had placed a moratorium on the project “to close the tap on money being spent”.
He also instituted a ministerial task-team investigation that made several recommendations including that the matter be referred to the Special Investigations Unit (SIU).
Quantity surveyors, architects and consultants were appointed “and paid exorbitant amounts” of money for plans and bill of quantities, said Masilo.
The task team, as well as the SIU and subsequently the Public Protector, had uncovered maladministration and poor planning for the Nkandla project.
They had noted that meetings weren’t minuted, drawings not filed, and drawings and sketches not updated.
“Everybody was frustrated. When the project was stopped, we collected the documents. The minister submitted everything. These were the same documents that also went to the SIU and Public Protector and the task team. Now you cannot at this stage say that the minister tried to mislead Parliament.”
In a statement later, Masilo added the minister was “shocked” to learn that Lees planned to move a motion in Parliament that he had deliberately tried to mislead Parliament.
