President Jacob Zuma. CC image courtesy of the World Economic Forum.
South African opposition party the Democratic Alliance (DA) is to use a court judgment on its Nkandla-related SMS as evidence as it seeks to have president Jacob Zuma impeached.
HumanIPO reported last week the High Court in Johannesburg ruled an SMS sent by the DA to over 1.5 million Gauteng voters accusing Zuma of stealing public money was “fair comment” after the ruling African National Congress (ANC) went to court in order to force the DA to retract the SMS, which referred to a public protector report which found Zuma had unduly benefited from an upgrade to his Nkandla homestead and said it was a “licence to loot”.
The SMS read: “The Nkandla report shows how Zuma stole your money to build his R246m home. Vote DA on 7 May to beat corruption. Together for change.”
The DA has now said it will hand over the judgment to the speaker of the National Assembly, Max Sisulu, as further evidence for the establishment of committee for the consideration of the party’s motion to impeach Zuma.
“This is further evidence in support of our case that president Zuma violated both the Constitution and the law and in doing so is guilty of serious misconduct. The Constitution is clear that such conduct may warrant the president’s removal from office,” said Lindiwe Mazibuko, parliamentary leader of the DA.
Mazibuko said Zuma should have “done the right thing and resigned” following the release of the public protector’s report, and failing that the ANC should have recalled him.
“Now following a court judgment, which confirmed the public protector’s findings that the President had detailed knowledge of the upgrades but did nothing to stop them, there is simply no basis for him to continue being in office,” she said. “To do so, is to condone corruption.”
