Zuma impeachment case reserved
JOHANNESBURG — After more than seven hours of arguments the Constitutional Court has reserved judgment in an application brought by the EFF and other opposition parties trying to have President Jacob Zuma impeached.
The opposition parties told the court that they wanted the establishment of a fact-finding ad hoc committee that would force Zuma to answer questions about his conduct during the Nkandla debacle.
The parties, which also included the UDM and Cope, strongly felt that no action had been taken against Zuma after the Constitutional Court ruling in March 2016 which found that Zuma had failed to uphold, defend and respect the Constitution.
They said there was no doubt that there was prima facie evidence for impeachment proceedings to be instituted against Zuma.
However, Hamilton Maenetje, representing National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete, said the Speaker’s office would be acting inconsistently were it to remove Zuma. “Because the Speaker plays the role of a referee, it would be inconsistent with her office to initiate the removal of Zuma,” Maenetje told the full bench of justices.
Maenetje was arguing against an application brought by the EFF, the UDM and Cope against Mbete and Zuma for various orders directed against them.
The orders include one declaring that Mbete failed to put in place all appropriate procedures and mechanisms to hold Zuma accountable following the president’s failure to implement recommendations in the former Public Protector’s report into Nkandla in 2014.
Maenetje admitted to the court that he personally accepted that Zuma had violated the Constitution.
“As a lawyer, the conduct is a serious violation,” he said.
“Our submission is that judgment rests with National Assembly. [It] would be inconsistent with separation of powers.”
He asked the court not to declare failure to fulfil constitutional obligation on Mbete’s part.
When asked why Mbete had not taken the initiative to establish an ad hoc committee to investigate Zuma’s conduct, Maenetje said: “The Speaker doesn’t set up ad hoc committees, it’s the responsibility of National Assembly. She doesn’t have powers to.”
Maenetje added that the fact that the president had not been impeached didn’t mean that the Speaker had failed to take action.
The justices grilled Maenetje, saying that holding executives accountable rested on all the members of the National Assembly, including the Speaker.
Advocate Dali Mpofu, representing the UDM and Cope, said he believed that a fact-finding inquiry would force Zuma to account for his actions.
Mpofu said the 27 question and answer sessions conducted by the National Assembly had been insufficient. He said an inquiry would allow interrogators to probe further and request evidence to prove the truth of what Zuma had said in his statements.
He said question and answer sittings differed from inquiry hearings.
“In an inquiry nobody is going to ask you to sit down or raise a point of order,” he said.
Mpofu said the inquiry would be an opportunity for Zuma to answer questions.
“Nobody is going to tell you that that question had been answered. Nobody is going to switch off the mic. We are coming to the court to say the correct process is that there must be an inquiry,” he said.
Mpofu said it should be determined whether Zuma violated the Constitution knowingly or if he was given bad advice.
“We are not vindicating his (Zuma) rights, we are vindicating the rights of the people,” he said.
However, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo said there had been poor communication between the parties. “Does this not tell us that there is a problem? These parties are not talking to one another?” Zondo asked. He wondered why opposition parties were turning to the courts for answers when solutions were available in the National Assembly.
He said if parties in Parliament communicated better, issues would be resolved with more success in the House.
Earlier, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng asked the EFF if it was asking to “kill” Zuma’s term in office.
“You are asking to kill the president’s term of office, have him removed?” Mogoeng quizzed EFF lawyer Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi. “In order to kill whatever it is you want to kill, you can shoot or use tradition...or knife. Your client wants to kill the president’s term of office.”
Mogoeng repeatedly asked all the lawyers representing the opposition parties whether they doubted the Nkandla judgment which found that Zuma’s conduct amounted to a serious violation of the Constitution. “We have no doubt,” Ngcukaitobi replied. However, Mpofu said there had been doubt, adding that the doubt was sowed by the Nkandla judgment and the former Public Protector’s report.
But Ngcukaitobi argued that it couldn’t be said that an investigation into Zuma’s conduct had been conducted.
“The primary responsibility to hold someone accountable lies with the Speaker…There is no dispute that there is a prima facie impeachable case against the president,” he said. — AFP CAPE TOWN — President Jacob Zuma has condemned the killing of Lesotho’s army commander Lieutenant General Khoantle Motsomotso, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation said in a statement on Tuesday.
“On behalf of Sadc, President Zuma condemns in the strongest terms possible the senseless and regrettable killing of Genenal Motsomotso, especially because his killing happens two years after the killing of former Lesotho Defence Force Commander, Brigadier Maaparankoe Mahao in June 2015, thus creating a dangerous pattern in the Kingdom of Lesotho.
“This unfortunate incident happens so soon after the Kingdom of Lesotho had conducted peaceful and democratic elections which Sadc had thought they were to bring political normalcy and stability in the country,” said the statement.
Motsomotso was shot dead by rival officers at a military barracks on Tuesday, in an apparent assassination set to revive instability in the mountainous African kingdom.
“The commander (Motsomotso) has been declared dead,” a military official who declined to be named was quoted as saying, adding that two senior officers behind the attack had also been killed in the shoot-out.
The military official said the two senior officers were denied access to Motsomotso’s office by army guards.
“They attempted to forcefully enter, there was a shoot-out between the two, their companion who has since fled, and the commander’s bodyguards,” he said.
Meanwhile, President Zuma has called for absolute calm and restraint. He also extended “his deepest condolences to the family of the deceased, the government and the people of the Kingdom of Lesotho”.
A new coalition government took office in Lesotho in June under Prime Minister Thomas Thabane, who vowed to bring peace to the country that has been rocked by a series of political upheavals.
Thabane (78) previously served as premier after the 2012 elections but was forced to flee to South Africa following an attempted military coup two years later.
Sadc is set to send a ministerial fact-finding mission to Lesothoto today to assess the situation following the killing of Motsomotso, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation says in a statement.
“True to one of its key objectives which is to consolidate, defend and maintain democracy, peace, security and stability in the region, Sadc will on 7th September 2017 dispatch a ministerial fact-finding mission to the kingdom to assess the situation and determine the required intervention mechanism,” read the statement. — AFP