The Institute for Accountability in Southern Africa (IFAISA) has filed an objection against President Jacob Zuma’s nomination as a candidate in the May 7 general elections.
The institute says the African National Congress is still considering the objection letter and had not yet responded substantively to it.
In an open letter sent to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), the institute includes arguments based on the Nkandla report.
The letter also contained the mention of review proceedings, which the Democratic Alliance has pending against the decision to withdraw 783 charges of corruption, fraud, money-laundering and racketeering against Zuma.
Agriculture union, Tau SA has also lodged an objection.
In a letter to the IEC it says President Zuma has been implicated in Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s report regarding possible irregular expenses on security upgrades at his private residence in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal.
Madonsela found in her report that Zuma and his family had benefitted unduly from the upgrade. She recommended that the president should repay some of the expenditure on Nkandla.
The president has decided that he will give a full and proper consideration to all the matters before him
President Zuma undertook on Wednesday to give Parliament a “further report” on “decisive executive interventions” on his private Nkandla home.
He would do so after receiving a report from the SIU he had directed to probe security upgrades at Nkandla, the presidency said in a statement.
It noted that three state agencies — the Public Protector, the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster of Cabinet and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) — had all “inquired into the same subject matter”.
“The president has decided that he will give a full and proper consideration to all the matters before him and, upon receipt of the SIU report, will provide Parliament with a further report on the decisive executive interventions that he would consider to be appropriate,” the presidency said.
“The president remains concerned about the allegations of maladministration and impropriety around procurement in the Nkandla project, in particular the allegations of cost inflation.”
Meanwhile, by the 17h00 cut-off on Tuesday, the Electoral Commission had received in excess of 40 submissions regarding objections to candidates of political parties for the national and provincial elections.
According to Electoral Commission in a statement, it says some of the submissions relate to more than one candidate.
“It is not yet possible to indicate how many candidates have been objected to as the submissions must now be captured and processed. Some of the submissions relate to more than one candidate and it is possible that more than one objection has been received for the same candidates.”
The Commission has until 07 April 2014 to consider and finalise these objections.
Appeals against the decision of the Commission must be submitted to the Electoral Court by 10 April 2014.
The Commission adds that: “The final deadline for decisions of the Electoral Court is 15 April 2014 following which the Chief Electoral Officer is required to give effect to decisions of the Commission on objections or a decision of the Electoral Court by 22 April 2014.”
Certificates will be issued to candidates on the final list of candidates by 24 April. –Additional Reporting by SAPA.
– By Sthembiso Sithole
