President Jacob Zuma yesterday avoided
giving an assurance that allegedly dodgy Limpopo contracts given to
African National Congress Youth League leader Julius Malema’s
company would be investigated, saying the state had to rely on
information before it and not on media reports.
Replying to MPs during presidential question time, Zuma also refused
to give an assurance he would not pardon his former financial
adviser, convicted fraud Schabir Shaik.
He was confronted by a barrage of questions about the government
contracts enjoyed by SGL Engineering Projects, in which Malema has
substantial interests, his call for a national debate on morality
and the granting of presidential pardons.
Zuma has consistently refused in recent weeks to see the contracts
allegedly enjoyed by Malema as at least improper, if not illegal. He
has defended Malema’s right to do business as he is not an elected
public representative or a public servant.
Responding to a question from Congress of the People MP Anele Mda,
Zuma said he would act on cases of corruption “where there is
information before me”. If people had information about Malema’s
deals that showed corruption , they should produce the information
before the appropriate government agency. He insisted the
allegations in the press had been denied.
This is similar to the way in which the Department of Correctional
Services stonewalled questions about Shaik and his medical parole,
insisting news stories were not enough.
“I am not sure that you can follow every story in the papers,” Zuma
said and repeated the call for information to be brought to the
government.
In a later discussion on his call for a debate on morality, he added
to the theme without mentioning Malema by name. “The principle we
should establish is that no person should be able to derive undue
financial benefit from the state by virtue of the public position
they occupy. This applies to elected public representatives and
members of the public service.”
This principle “has guided our efforts over the last 16 years,
through legislation and regulations, to prevent the abuse of public
funds”.
“We should be cautious, however, that our efforts to strengthen
these provisions do not inadvertently undermine the rights of any
citizen to engage in legitimate business activity, including with
the state. We must also be careful not to make sweeping statements
that place legitimate business activities in the same basket as
those that may be unlawful or unethical.”
Responding to Inkatha Freedom Party chief whip Koos van der Merwe on
presidential pardons, he insisted he had applied his mind to the 230
applications he had refused. A
follow-up question from Democratic Alliance MP James Selfe about
whether he would give the assurance that Shaik would not be
pardoned, Zuma said that if the information placed before him in the
Shaik matter persuaded him a pardon should be given, that would be
the case *1.
He said an application by Shaik should not be
prejudged on the basis of who he was rather than the circumstances
of the application. He said he would not provide reasons for the 230
refusals.
With acknowledgements to
Wyndham Hartley and Business Day.
*1 It's
going to happen.
When?
Not long after SWC2010.
Why?
Shaik is sick and tired of malingering at home pretending he has
chronic hypertension.
He wants to get out there and re-establish his bumiputerian
businesses under his bribee President Jacob Zuma.
It'll be a cynch.