Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Maimane tells DA march he’ll give Zuma five days
DA LEADER Mmusi Maimane has given President Jacob Zuma five days to reprimand government ministers over the Nkandla saga.
Maimane said Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng had ordered the president take decisive action against the police minister and those in the National Assembly.
He said 14 days had passed since the order was made, but Zuma had still not acted in any way. He had instead gone to Port Elizabeth “to lie to the masses”.
“Jacob Zuma is not a constitutionalist. He doesn’t believe in the rule of law, he believes in the rule of man. The rule of law tells us that no one is above the law... but Jacob Zuma is a thief and we know him. You can’t be a thief alone, you need other thieves,” he said to rousing applause.
Maimane yesterday led thousands of DA supporters through the streets of Hillbrow in Joburg as the party marched to Constitution Hill to defend what it termed the trampling of the country’s supreme law by Zuma and the ANC.
Speaking outside the Constitutional Court, Maimane said: “I’ve written to Jacob Zuma to tell him to reprimand his ministers. If he doesn’t do so in the next five days I will be back here to ask Judge Mogoeng Mogoeng to act, as he (Zuma) would have been in contempt of court.”
He said in the chief justice, the country had found a judge with “a spine”.
“When Jacob Zuma stole the money he didn’t steal from faceless taxpayers. He stole from people in Protea Glen who today are without houses and from those who get social grants. We are here to say Jacob Zuma, your days are numbered… we want the courts to chop off the ugly head of impunity. This is why corruption charges against him must be reinstated.”
The Constitutional Court has ordered the national Treasury to determine the reasonable costs of measures implemented by the Department of Public Works at Nkandla, particularly those unrelated to security.
The Treasury has to report back within 60 days of the Constitutional Court’s order.