The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Thursday said it had reported the Speaker of the House and African National Congress (ANC) MPs who voted to defend President Jacob Zuma to the Ethics Committee.

“The DA has today returned to the scene of the crime, where the ANC Caucus and Speaker of Parliament aided and abetted the President contravene the Constitution, to launch a formal complaint with the Registrar of the Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests for their deplorable role in Parliaments processing of the Public Protector’s report on Nkandla,” said John Steenhuisen the DA Chief Whip in a statement.

“Yesterday the ANC Chief Whip, Jackson Mthembu, called a press conference to place the blame for the National Assembly’s poor processing of the Public Protector’s report on the millions of rands spent on the President’s private residence on Parliament’s legal advisors and a cabinet and caucus-wide ‘misunderstanding.”

Steenhuisen said it was “important to remember” that Parliament’s legal advisors were not the ones seated in the National Assembly last year in August when ANC MPs used their majority to pass a resolution that would effectively nullify the findings and remedial action taken, by the Public Protector.

“That resolution has now been ruled by the Constitutional Court to be invalid and has been set aside,” said Steenhuisen.

“Further, the Constitutional Court found that National Assembly flouted its obligations in terms of sections 42(3) and 55(2) of the Constitution. Indeed the Court found that as a result, this resolution was inconsistent with the Constitution and unlawful.”

He said the ANC was undoubtedly complicit in this unlawful resolution being passed by Parliament, the subsequent flouting of the Constitution and possible violation of Section 4.1 of the Code of Ethical Conduct and Disclosure of Members’ Interests for Assembly and Permanent Council Members.

“While Mthembu’s claims that, ‘the ANC did not use their majority to do something wrong’ are debatable, it is quite clear that the ANC yesterday used its majority in Parliament to condone something that was, and not the first time,” said Steenhuisen.

He said during the course of the Nkdandla debacle “we have witness a series of ANC Caucus members try bend themselves, parliamentary procedure, and even the law backwards to absolve President Zuma of accountability”.

“The ANC caucus must be held accountable for the complacency in this maniacal miscarriage of justice, and the DA will do everything in our power to ensure that they are,” said Steenhuisen.