In 2014, the private home of then president, Jacob Zuma, became a site of a scandal when a report by the former public protector Adv Thuli Madonsela found that the former president had unduly benefited from upgrades to the homestead.
The use of public funds to make improvements to the compound, which were said to be for security reasons and which cost over R246m, was criticised by opposition parties. It is important to note that documentation on the upgrades detailed vastly inflated prices for the work done, much of it not going out to tender and huge consulting fees.
The opposition insisted that the ex-president pay back the money for the upgrades – a demand informed by the public protector’s recommendations on the matter. Zuma refused to do so. His decision to disregard the public protector’s recommendations was supported by the ANC in the National Assembly.
Ministers in his cabinet and other members of parliament were falling all over themselves defending their president, arguing that he was entitled to the upgrades which included strange things such as a “fire pool”. Ad hoc committees and an inter-ministerial task team were established with the sole aim of justifying the Nkandla expenditure. A report clearing the president was adopted by the National Assembly, where the ANC had a majority, in 2015.
The blatant arrogance of the ANC was brought to a halt when the Constitutional Court subsequently found that Zuma (and the National Assembly) had indeed failed to uphold the country's constitution after he failed to comply with the public protector's report on the matter.
The matter had been brought before the court by the DA and the EFF. The court further ordered the National Treasury to determine the amount that Zuma had to pay back. Zuma was ordered to pay the money back within 45 days of the court's approval of the National Treasury report. Following the judgment, Zuma paid back almost R8m and issued a public apology.
One would think that Nkandlagate, one of the worst scandals of the ANC-led government, would have been an important lesson to the party about accountability and the importance of the rule of law. Sadly, this is not the case.
A week ago, ANC members of parliament voted against the establishment of an ad hoc committee to investigate the Phala Phala saga involving current president, Cyril Ramaphosa. The president is under investigation by the Hawks for his failure to account for an alleged robbery at his Phala Phala farm where hundreds of thousands of US dollars were stolen.
Claims have been made by the country’s former spy boss, Arthur Fraser, that the president was involved in an elaborate cover-up of the crime. Fraser claimed that the suspects of the robbery were subsequently kidnapped, interrogated and bribed to keep quiet. If these allegations are true, then Ramaphosa is complicit and is an accessory to various crimes.
By voting against the establishment of the ad hoc committee to investigate these allegations, ANC MPs have repeated exactly what they did with Zuma and Nkandla – they have voted against holding Ramaphosa accountable.
By shielding him from this investigation, they have communicated that their loyalty to the party and specifically, to its leader, is more important than their loyalty to South Africans, who have the right to know the truth about whether or not their president was involved in criminal activities. And by doing so, they have nailed their colours to the mast.
It is clear now that Nkandla was not an error of judgment, it was what Phala Phala is – the ANC’s middle finger to the people.
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