South Africa President Jacob Zuma. A court ruling has opened the door for his impeachment. PHOTO | GULSHAN KHAN | AFP
JOHANNESBURG
South
Africa's top court on Friday ruled that Parliament had failed to hold
President Jacob Zuma accountable for using public money for private home
upgrades, a move that could lead to impeachment proceedings.
Opposition
parties had gone to the Constitutional Court to argue that the speaker
of Parliament failed to enforce the appropriate processes to censure
Zuma over the scandal.
SCANDAL
Zuma
had failed to abide by recommendations made by the country's
anti-corruption watchdog in 2014 over refurbishments at his personal
home in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province that misused $15 million of
taxpayers' money.
The scandal came to
a dramatic climax when the Constitutional Court last year found the
president guilty of violating his oath of office by refusing to pay back
the cash.
"We conclude that (National) Assembly did not hold the president to account," said Constitutional Court judge Chris Jafta.
"The
failure by the National Assembly to make rules regulating removal of
the president... constitutes a violation" of the Constitution, the court
said.
It ordered that the National
Assembly "must comply" with the Constitution and make rules that could
be used for the removal of the president "without delay".
COURT CASES
Defeated
in court and facing mounting public criticism, Zuma later relented and
paid $500,000, a sum set by the treasury following last year's ruling.
In
power since 2009, Zuma stepped down last week as president of the
ruling African National Congress (ANC) party after a 10-year term marked
by numerous damning court judgments against him.
Friday's
ruling is expected to pile pressure on the beleaguered leader to resign
ahead of the end of his term as state president in 2019.
Zuma
was succeeded by his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa in a tightly fought contest
in which his former wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma also ran.
‘NO SHAME’
Sydney
Mufamadi, an ANC stalwart who has known Zuma for decades, said the
president would not step aside because he had no "sense of shame" and
called on Parliament to act following the judgment.
"This
is going to be an acid test of the new leadership of the ANC and
Parliament," said Mufamadi, who is now director of the School of
Leadership at the University of Johannesburg.
"Parliament has the authority to remove him... not to protect an errant president."
The
ANC's deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte said the party had noted
the ruling and would "discuss its full implications" when the party's
decision-making National Executive Committee meets on January 10.
EXPOSED
One
of the opposition parties that took the matter to court, Congress of
the People, said the ruling had left Zuma exposed and put the ANC under
pressure to act against him.
"He has
reached a point at which he is like Saddam Hussein in a hole and there
is no other chamber to go except to come out. He's got to come out now,"
said COPE leader Mosiuoa Lekota.
In a
statement the National Assembly said it had "already initiated a
process, as part of its overhaul of rules" to put in place a procedure
for removing a sitting president.
'REMOVING' ZUMA
Ralph
Mathekga, a political analyst and author of the book "When Zuma Goes",
said the judgment would strengthen the position of those seeking to
remove Zuma.
"Zuma is on his way out,
the only difference is how ANC members will negotiate with him. It's
going to take negotiations with Zuma so that he can leave office,"
Mathekga said.
The main opposition
Democratic Alliance party has said it will seek to have its
parliamentary motion of impeachment against Zuma "re-tabled" as soon as
possible.
No comments :
Post a Comment