SA COURT DELIVERS ZUMA IMPEACHMENT BLOW
PRETORIA - South Africa's top court has found that parliament failed to comply with its duties in holding President Jacob Zuma accountable over a public funding case.
The ruling said parliament must now set out rules for impeachment proceedings, but it remains unclear whether this will lead to any impeachment.
The court was hearing a case brought by opposition groups who wanted parliament to be compelled to begin impeachment.
It relates to Zuma's use of state funds to upgrade his private home.
Handing down the Constitutional Court ruling, Judge Chris Jafta said: "We conclude that the assembly did not hold the president to account.
"The assembly must put in place a mechanism that could be used for the removal of the presi- dent from office."
But the court said it could not intervene on how parliament determined the mechanism and that it had no power to order an impeachment
The court awarded costs against Zuma and parliament. The court ruling was by majority. Dissenting Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng said the ruling was a clear case of “judicial overreach.”
Some $15m in state money was spent upgrading Zuma’s home.
In March 2016, the court ruled he had ignored a watchdog’s findings and said he must pay some of the money back. The president has reimbursed $631,000, deemed by the Treasury to be “reasonable.”
Parliament then debated the matter and he survived a noconfidence vote, but yesterday’s court ruling said that the proce- dures it followed were insufficient. Zuma has been weakened by a number of corruption allegations and by his recent replacement by Cyril Ramaphosa as head of the ruling ANC.
Zuma, 75, is scheduled to remain president until general elections in 2019.
He has faced a number of corruption allegations, all of which he denies.
Earlier this month Zuma lost two court cases in one day, both linked to corruption allegations.