It is very strange that the Waterkloof Air Force Base could be trivialised and dismissed at a simple party committee meeting while the home of an individual is ascribed the status of a national key point with a fortune in public funds being spent thereon. The day will come when these parliamentary precincts will be devoid of their national key point status.
The ANC government has consistently taken exception when opposition Members of Parliament have pointed out their shortcomings in governance, but then they cede their political and executive responsibilities to government officials. If that were not so, there is no way that Ministers of the affected departments could be absolved from the Gupta plane debacle while officials are made to carry the can. This is as good as saying that those officials are in charge and there are no Ministers.
In real democracies, when an event like this occurs, Ministers will resign or be fired by the President because they lowered their guard where and when it mattered most. In a real democracy, the President himself would have quit and not pleaded with the public not to conflate relations between this country and India because a plane landed at a particular air base. It is up to Parliament to deal with him, as they elected him.
In 2003, Bulelani Ngcuka, the then director of Public Prosecutions, said that Zuma was in trouble because he had surrounded himself with Indians. This sounded like a far-fetched and xenophobic statement, but now look at what is happening to the country because of that type of association. We note that three securocrats: Njenje, Maqetuka and Moe Shaik, lost their jobs because they were concerned about the activities of the Guptas. The buck stops with the President and his executive. There is no way that they can pass the buck.
Besides, no one in their wildest dreams would think directors-general would and could lay the blame at the doors of the President or Ministers without their risking being charged with misconduct in terms of the Public Service Act. Only an independent institution can dig out the truth and make sense of this rigmarole.
Political accountability has been consigned to the dustbin of expediency and sacrificed on the altar of supposed friendship. The Guptas did what they did with sheer impunity to illustrate to their compatriots the muscle they can flex over the leaders of this country. After all, there has been no rebut of the assertion that some Ministers learned of their appointment to Cabinet from the Guptas before the President told them.
While one may believe that none of the members of Cabinet knew of the plane landing at this particular airport, a thousand would not. The report so presented has to be rejected with the contempt it deserves.
In conclusion, I plead with President Zuma and his government to heed the following words. I quote from Matthew 7:15: "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." I thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]