Zuma must be held accountable for property scandal, court rules

SOUTH Africa’s top court yesterday ruled that parliament had failed to hold Jacob Zuma, the president, accountable for using public money for private home upgrades, a move that could lead to impeachment proceedings.

The opposition had gone to the Constitutional Court, arguing that the speaker of parliament failed to enforce the processes to hold Zuma accountable.

In 2014 the president failed to abide by recommendations from the anticorruption watchdog by refurbishing his home in the eastern Kwazulu-natal province to the tune of $15 million (£11 million) of public money. The Constitutional Court last year found him guilty of violating his oath of office when he refused to pay back the money.

“We conclude that (National) Assembly did not hold the president to account,” said Judge Chris Jafta. “The failure by the National Assembly to make rules regulating the removal of the president ... constitutes a violation” of the constitution, the court said. It ordered that the National Assembly “must comply” with the constitution to make rules that could be used for the removal of the president “without delay”.