A twitter group is calling for President Jacob Zuma to be impeached in relation to the upgrades at his Nkandla home.
|||Durban – Impeach President Jacob Zuma for lying to Parliament about his personal enrichment at the expense of taxpayers.
That is the call being made on social networking site Twitter on Friday in the wake of the leaking of Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s report on the R215-million upgrade of Zuma’s Nkandla homestead.
Although claiming to be unfazed by the revelations which claim that Madonsela found Zuma had benefited personally from the security upgrade of his homestead, the ANC called “on all South Africans…to exercise restraint and caution until the public protector releases her report.”
This follows the Twitter campaigners – calling themselves “the committee for the impeachment of the president” – calling for Zuma and everyone involved in the upgrade at Nkandla, to be prosecuted.
If this did not happen, it would call on people to demonstrate outside Parliament on February 13. By lunchtime on Friday, the petition had been signed by 250 people, including activist Zackie Achmat.
On Friday, several cabinet ministers who make up the security cluster met Madonsela to discuss the leaked provisional report.
These same ministers had previously gone to court, seeking an interdict to stop the public protector from releasing the report before they had an opportunity to consider the impact this would have on Zuma’s security.
Despite opposition parties calling for Zuma’s head, the ANC said it was “not fazed” by revelations on Friday that Zuma allegedly enjoyed “substantial” personal benefits from R215m security upgrades.
Spokesman Jackson Mthembu said it was “jumping the gun” to call for action against Zuma, as the details in a Mail & Guardian exposé stemmed from a provisional report that could not be verified.
“We don’t understand how people have come to certain conclusions on whatever needs to be done, based on this report which might not be factual, that might not even be agreed to by the public protector herself,” Mthembu said. “The authority is the public protector, who has a constitutional obligation to speak to the nation on any report.”
He said that a task team report commissioned by the Department of Public Works had cleared Zuma of benefiting improperly from work done at Nkandla.
That, however, is in stark contrast to the reported findings of Madonsela’s provisional report.
According to the Mail & Guardian story, Madonsela had found – subject to possible changes after she receives feedback from affected parties – that the president derived “substantial” personal benefit from the work, which exceeded security needs, and must repay some of the R215m spent so far.
Madonsela, according to the M&G, recommended that Parliament call Zuma to account for violating the executive ethics code in that he misled the legislature when he said his family had paid for all structures not related to security and for failing to protect state resources. Among items not linked to security were a swimming pool, visitors’ centre, amphitheatre, cattle kraal, marquee area, extensive paving and houses for relatives.
Zuma had also intervened to ensure that his private architect and builders contracted by him were appointed to complete the work, the M&G reported.
United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said the ANC had a responsibility to “deal” with Zuma. The party had set a precedent when it recalled Thabo Mbeki from office before his term had expired.
“If they don’t want to do that, that means the ANC will be on trial, not Zuma anymore,” he said.
DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said the revelations were so damning that Zuma should face “the most severe sanction”, should they prove to be correct.
If Madonsela’s findings in her final report didn’t change from those reported yesterday, she would consider tabling a motion to investigate Zuma under Section 89 of the constitution, for “being in violation of the constitution or the law and committing serious misconduct”.
Agang SA spokesman Thabo Leshilo said Zuma should repay “every rand of public money improperly spent on making him live like the monarchy (sic) he fancies himself to be”.
Madonsela’s spokesman, Oupa Segalwe, said the documents cited in the M&G report could not have come from her office.
”We are not confirming the contents of the Mail & Guardian report, hence we are referring to them as ‘purported’,” Segalwe said.
Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj declined to comment.
Independent on Saturday