Zuma compiles list of interests
2010-03-08 10:36
President Jacob Zuma has started compiling a list of his interests
and is ready to declare them should legal advice indicate he has to, his
spokesman Vincent Magwenya said today.
“People should also appreciate that while the president has been
waiting for clarification from the legal team, he has also instructed that a
submission be declared for purposes of declaration in the event that it was
found that he has to declare,” Magwenya said.
This morning the opposition, Democratic Alliance, said it would ask the Public Protector
to investigate whether Zuma had violated section 5 of the Executive Ethics Code
by not declaring his interests within 60 days of taking office in May last
year.
Magwenya said he wanted it known that it was “the president through
his office that publicly disclosed that he has not declared his financial
interests“, he said, referring to questions put to the office and then reported
on in the Sunday Independent.
“It is not as if the president was hiding anything,” he said.
The president was committed to running a transparent open
administration and that is why the president told the publication that he has
not disclosed his financial interests.
If the president was hiding something he would not have given such
an open and forthright response, continued Magwenya.
He had wanted to declare his interests, but there was a difference
of opinion in his office on whether he was required to.
His attorney Michael Hulley is currently handling the matter, which
includes verifying the interests of his large family and dependent children,
which is expected to take some time. Zuma has three wives and 20 children.
“That process is already underway. He will want to see it completed
as soon as possible.”
- SAPA