Honourable Speaker

Mr Jacob Zuma should have announced his resignation from office on 1 April 2016 following the devastating Constitutional Court judgement handed down against him regarding “Nkandlagate” on 31 March 2016.

Sadly, he did not resign.

Instead, it being April Fools Day, Mr Zuma defiantly showed the political middle finger to the Supreme Law of the Land, the Constitution, and the Constitutional Court that had found against him.

To add insult to contempt, Mr Zuma then proffered his sham apology, thus treating the Constitutional Court Justices and the citizens of this country as idiots.

Mr Zuma needs to know that the people of this country are not fools. We are not cast in his mould.

To compound this shameless arrogance, a few days later on 5 April 2016, 233 members of Mr Zuma’s party in this Parliament, arrogantly voted against a Democratic Alliance motion to have Mr Zuma impeached.

As we speak, those who have made it their mission to protect and defend Mr Zuma at every turn, variously described as Mr Zuma’s praise-singers, “Zuma’s idiots” or “Zuma Zombies”, are rattling their sabres telling this country that Mr Zuma “is going nowhere”- in spite of the ConCourt judgement.

The fact that the ConCourt has found that Mr Zuma has violated the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa means absolutely nothing to these people.

This Parliament is now being asked to approve a budget of R491.8 million for the 2016/17 financial year, rising to R526.8 million by 2018/19 under Budget Vote 1: The Presidency.

The Budget also provides R3.3 million for the salary of Mr Zuma for this financial year, growing to R3.6 million by 2018/19. For Mr Ramaphosa the corresponding numbers are R2.8 million and R3.1 million.

Travel and subsistence will gobble up R53.3 million for 2016/17. Support services to Mr Zuma and Mr Ramaphosa will cost R118.1 million this financial year, growing to R121.5 million by 2018/19.

In the context of South Africa’s serious problems with poverty and unemployment, these are significantly huge costs for the Presidency’s salaries, travel and subsistence.

That is not all.

Meanwhile, the Presidency continues to pile up huge amounts in unauthorised expenditure.

Since Mr Zuma took office in 2009, the Presidency incurred unauthorised expenditure of more than R43 million, mostly in legal fees, by the end of the 2010/11 financial year.

The amount spent since then is still unknown.

Most of these millions of Rands can be booked as fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

The Presidency has yet to pick up the tab for the “Nkandlagate” litigation as ordered in the ConCourt judgement.

The “Spy tapes” litigation will also have to be paid for as per order of the High Court in Pretoria last Friday.

This is how the Sunday Independent put it last Sunday: “The toll has been enormous. Not only has Zuma fought this battle every inch of the way at taxpayers’ expense – retaining the services of his lawyer Michael Hulley – with the prosecuting authority doing the same, but they have now been ordered to pay towards the DA’s considerable legal expenses.”

The DA calls on Mr Zuma to stop wasting the nation’s money, accept the High Court’s judgement and explain himself before a court of this country.

Meanwhile, what has South Africa to show for these huge sums of money expended on Mr Zuma’s never ending court cases and to support his wasteful and lavish lifestyle?

When Mr Zuma makes monumental blunders that cost the country’s economy billions of Rand in lost asset value, as was the case when he fired former Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene, we are told to lump it, because it is his “presidential prerogative”.

Presidential prerogative cannot and must not be exercised to the detriment of the country’s economy and at the expense of the more than 8 million unemployed and millions more poor South Africans.

Prerogative is a privilege; it comes with responsibility and respect.

A day before Mr Zuma took his Oath of Office for the first time at the Union Buildings on 9 April 2009, the Dollar/Rand exchange rate was 1 US dollar to R8.45. One Euro was worth R11.33; one UK pound was R12.71; and One Botswana Pula equalled R0.8535.

Last night the corresponding values were: Rand/Dollar R14.62; Rand/Pound R21.28; Rand Euro R16.85. The Pula is now much stronger than the Rand.

Clearly, under Mr Zuma our Rand is relentlessly weakening against the other currencies. The country lives in fear of a possible sovereign ratings downgrade to junk status by the international rating agencies.

This means that South Africans are getting poorer on Mr Zuma’s watch.

Yet, this Parliament is being asked to vote for even more money than before for the Presidency.

Honourable Members, one of the most important jobs of the Presidency is to nurture and promote nation building, social cohesion and national identity.

However, under the Zuma Administration, all the indices in this regard are very discouraging.

When was the last time we heard of the Rainbow Nation of the people of South Africa?

This national project seems to have faltered.

Many white South Africans feel that they no longer have a home in the country. Black people continue to be called all sorts of dehumanising names.

In short, the nation building project which started with such great promise is a mess UNDER Zuma’s ANC.

According to Stats SA, 43 percent of households in Mpumalanga live in inadequate housing (that is, “mekhukhu” or shacks), the highest in the land; with the Eastern Cape at 40.3 percent and KwaZulu-Natal at 37.6 percent.

On the lower end of the scale, there is the Western Cape with 24.3 percent and the Northern Cape at 21.6 percent.

The situation seems to be getting worse as more people migrate to the urban areas.

Furthermore, Statistician-General, Padi Lehohla, has recently warned that the country faces a “cocktail of disasters” because of the very high numbers of unemployed black and coloured young people.

Where are the jobs you promised the nation, Mr Zuma?

Xenophobia remains a festering sore in our social and economic fabric. Service delivery protests have become endemic and violent. Corruption is rampant in the public sector.

The official commemorations of our national days like Human Rights Day, Freedom Day and others have degenerated into ANC rallies, with many South Africans feeling alienated – and staying away.

To compound these concerns, this Parliament has yet to establish a portfolio committee to exercise oversight over Mr Zuma and the Mr Ramaphosa to account to Parliament and the nation for the vast amount of money spent on The Presidency.

Regrettably, previous DA calls for a portfolio committee for the Presidency have fallen on deaf ears.

For instance, how much of the hefty travel budget ends up as fruitless and wasteful expenditure because the money spent has not brought any tangible dividend to the country?

Honourable Members, we do not know because this Parliament has put the Presidency beyond its portfolio committee oversight mechanism.

Honourable Speaker, I would now like to turn to the so-called apology by Mr Zuma regarding the Nkandla scandal, the Public Protector’s remedial action and the related ConCourt judgement.

In his statement to the nation on 1 April 2016, Mr Zuma used the word “apologise” only once. The rest was fudge, self-justification or worse.

I quote: “The matter has caused a lot of frustration and confusion, for which I apologise on my behalf and on behalf of government.”

There has indeed been lots of frustration regarding this matter. However, any confusion was concocted by Mr Zuma and his advisors for their own ends.

There was never any confusion on the part of the Public Protector regarding the remedial action or on the part of the Democratic Alliance regarding the responsibility of Mr Zuma on the matter.

During the State of the Nation debate on 19 June 2014, I made the following point from this podium. During the State of the Nation Debate on 19 February 2013, I urged Mr Zuma to “show leadership and take ownership of the Nkandla Scandal because no amount of talk or spin would explain the scandal away….There is no way in which Mr Zuma can distance himself from the Nkandla scandal: THE BUCK STOPS WITH YOU, Mr Zuma!”

And what was Mr Zuma’s response? He laughed at us and called us howlers. Now the chickens have come home to roost.

Instead of attempting an egg-dance on 1 April 2016, Mr Zuma should have said to the nation:

“Fellow South Africans, I apologise for failing to comply with the remedial action taken against me by the Public Protector;

I apologise for failing to uphold, defend and respect the Constitution as the supreme law of the land;

I apologise for violating my Oath of Office;

I apologise for treating you like fools;

I am sorry, I resign. Goodnight!”

That would have been a real apology; but that takes true leadership; something that Mr Zuma does not seem to have.