Zuma ‘like Saddam Hussein in a hole’ after top court ruling

Cape Town : South Africa’s top court on Friday ruled that parliament had failed to hold President Jacob Zuma accountable for using public money for private home upgrades, a move that could lead to impeachment proceedings.

Opposition parties had gone to the Constitutional Court to argue that the speaker of parliament failed to enforce the appropriate processes to censure Zuma over the scandal.

Zuma had failed to abide by recommendations made by the country’s anti-corruption watchdog in 2014 over refurbishments at his personal home in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province that misused US$15 million of taxpayers’ money.

The scandal came to a dramatic climax when the Constitutional Court last year found the president guilty of violating his oath of office by refusing to pay back the cash.

“We conclude that [the National] Assembly did not hold the president to account,” said Constitutional Court judge Chris Jafta.

“The failure by the National Assembly to make rules regulating removal of the president … constitutes a violation” of the constitution, the court said.

It ordered that the National Assembly “must comply” with the constitution and make rules that could be used for the removal of the president “without delay”.

Defeated in court and facing mounting public criticism, Zuma later relented and paid US$500,000, a sum set by the treasury following last year’s ruling.