Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi didn’t expect a letter of reprimand, it emerged at a media briefing ahead of his budget vote last week. The minister has closed procurement loopholes raised by the public protector’s March 2014 “Secure in Comfort” report on Nkandla and several senior departmental officials had been charged internally even if disciplinary proceedings against all but one, who accepted blame, appeared to have stalled amid legal manoeuvrings.

Yet that reprimand in a letter from Zuma dated Wednesday 20 April 2016 did arrive in Nxesi’s inbox, as well as those of Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa, the former police minister who declared Nkandla a national key point, and former public works minister Geoff Doidge, now ambassador to Sri Lanka.

It wasn’t exactly a telling off.

“The Constitutional Court has affirmed the direction by the public protector, amongst others, that I am required to reprimand the ministers involved in the Nkandla project, for what the public protector termed ‘the appalling manner in which the Nkandla Project was handled and state funds were abused’ (para 11.1.3). (The full judgment is accessible here) Pursuant to the latter I hereby deliver the reprimand required. I am doing so to each of the ministers indicated by the report,” wrote Zuma.

The letters, headed “Public Protector’s report on the investigation into allegations of improper or irregular conduct relating to the security upgrades at Nkandla”, were published on Friday in Parliament’s Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports (ATC), the institution’s record of work.

DA leader Mmusi Maimane on Sunday was spitting fire and brimstone, saying the letters were a joke and “do not constitute a reprimand by any normal understanding of the word”.

His party has forwarded these letters to its legal team for scrutiny.

“The letters reinforce President Zuma’s arrogant refusal to accept that he did anything wrong. The letters do not specifically reprimand the ministers for their involvement in this unacceptable abuse of public funds, and for their role over the course of several years in trying to hide facts and shield the president from accountability,” said Maimane.

But the presidential letters follow the “apology” for confusion and frustration Zuma, rather appropriately delivered to the nation on April Fools’ Day. It was accepted by the ANC national working committee days later when this structure opened its doors to anyone from the party’s highest decision-making structure between national conferences, the national executive committee (NEC). Acceptance of the presidential “apology” appeared aimed at closing ranks in the face of mounting calls for Zuma’s stepping down from within the ANC by veterans, stalwarts, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) commissars and from outside the governing party by churches and civil society organisations.

The ANC said it would engage its structures on this decision. To date six provinces publicly have accepted the presidential apology, leaving only Gauteng asking the state and party president to “think deeply”. The ANC’s youth, women’s and veterans leagues have been vocal in support of Zuma’s apology.

At Saturday’s funeral of the 10 Ekurhuleni ANC members killed on their way back from the party’s local government election manifesto launch, long-standing Zuma backer, Free State premier Ace Magashule, stepped into the fray.

“There is only one ANC in South Africa. There are not many ANCs. And when the national executive committee of the ANC has spoken, all of us are supposed to toe the line,” he is quoted by City Press.

Meanwhile, the presidency on Friday said work is continuing on the implementation of the public protector’s remedial action. An inter-department committee is looking to update the 2003 Cabinet policy regarding security for sitting and former presidents and their deputies, which currently allows uncapped spending. (The public protector tasked the secretary to Cabinet, presidency Director-General Cassius Lubisi, to do this). The defence department is drafting standard operating procedures on implementing benefits for presidents, deputy presidents, ministers and their deputies, as well as foreign dignitaries.

Of course, the public protector’s report also listed a range of other remedial action such as the SAPS national commissioner identifying those police officials involved in the Nkandla debacle with a view to possible disciplinary steps. And to make sure the president and Cabinet are fully aware of what is permissible, and what’s not. DM

Photo: South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma attends a lunch during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Port-of-Spain November 28, 2009. REUTERS/Jorge Silva.