Civil bodies target JZ
PLEA FROM HELEN SUZMAN FOUNDATION, MY VOTE COUNTS ConCourt approached to ask Speaker Mbete to start the process.
The Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF) and My Vote Counts NPC (MVC) want the Constitutional Court to force the Speaker of parliament Baleka Mbete to start a process aimed at removing President Jacob Zuma from office.
The organisations filed an urgent application for direct access to the Constitutional Court, seeking an order to declare that Zuma and the National Assembly had violated their constitutional duty.
They want the court to set aside as irrational the president’s decision to fire former finance minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy, Mcebisi Jonas, replacing them with Malusi Gigaba and Sfiso Buthelezi.
They will also ask the court to direct the speaker of parliament to institute an investigation into Zuma’s conduct with the view of possible removal proceedings against him in terms of Section 89 of the constitution.
The litigation follows the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) application in the High Court in Pretoria to set aside Zuma’s decision to get rid of Gordhan and his deputy.
The court last week gave the president five days to provide the DA with the reasons for his decision, including a so-called intelligence report allegedly implicating Gordhan and Jonas in plotting against him.
The presidency has given notice it will appeal the ruling.
HSF director Francis Antonie in an affidavit accused Zuma of engaging in a pattern of irrational and unlawful conduct with regard to the Nkandla debacle, the dismissal of Nhlanhla Nene as finance minister in 2015 and the latest Cabinet reshuffle.
“The president is obliged to act in a manner that is lawful and rational, and which has the effect of upholding, defending and respecting the constitution as the supreme law of the republic.
“When the president’s conduct, whether by design, recklessness or otherwise, achieves the opposite result, then he not only acts unlawfully, he fails as the constitution’s primary agent upon whose shoulders the ultimate constitutional responsibility has been placed for our nation.
“The president has, regrettably, abused ... the formidable power invested in the office of the presidency, has ignored and breached his constitutional obligations, the rule of law and the constitution.
“(He) has sought to act with impunity as a law unto himself, has enriched himself through the office he holds as a public servant, has acted in a manner which is not in the best interests of the republic and has violated various constitutionally enshrined rights of every citizen in this country.
“(He) has divided the republic and has caused immense harm ... including economically, socially and regarding our international reputation as a functioning democracy,” Antonie said. –