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Roundup: ANC groups voice support for Zuma as opposition calls for impeachment

Xinhua, April 2, 2016 Adjust font size:

Amid growing calls for President Jacob Zuma to step down, two subordinated groups of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) have thrown their weight behind him following the Constitutional Court's ruling on a corruption scandal involving the president.

"Our support for Zuma remains unshaken," the ANC Women's League (ANCWL) said in a statement Friday.

This came after the Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday that Zuma flouted the Constitution by ignoring Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's findings into the Nkandla case.

The court also found that Zuma must repay for the upgrades at his private home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal Province.

Remedial action recommended by Madonsela against Zuma in terms of Constitution is binding, the court ruled.

Mandosela released the "Secure in Comfort" report in March 2014 into the final findings into the scandal, in which Zuma was accused of abusing public funding worth 246 million rand (about 16 million US dollars) in security upgrades at his Nkandla home.

Madonsela claims that Zuma's family unduly benefited from the project and asks Zuma to pay part of the money on the project, a demand rejected by Zuma then.

The ANCWL said it notes and respects the Constitutional Court ruling handed in relation to the Public Protector's report on Nkandla.

"We have learnt lessons from the judgement, and wish to state it unequivocally, unambiguously and categorically clear that we firmly stand behind the ANC President, Cde Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma," it said.

Expressing faith in Zuma's leadership, the ANCWL said the court ruling is a sign of continuous strengthening of SA's democracy.

Meanwhile, the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) said it does not believe that Zuma should step down because the Constitutional Court did not say the president must step down.

"It's not as if this thing can be corrected because the president himself said he was willing to pay for the upgrades," ANCYL Secretary General Njabulo Nzuza said.

Also on Friday, the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) said paying back the money" is not enough, Zuma must be impeached.

The DA has filed a motion to Parliament to impeach Zuma.

"The process of impeachment is not one that the people of South Africa should take lightly. It should be reserved for the most serious cases of improper conduct or unlawful conduct by the head of state," DA leader Mmusi Maimane told reporters in Johannesburg.

The motion should be used to send a message to the president and the people of South Africa that abuse of the Constitution will not be tolerated, Maimane said.

"As the DA, we therefore call upon Members of Parliament, representatives of the people of South Africa, on either side of the House, as well as society as a whole, to mobilise to support this motion of impeachment to remove Jacob Zuma from the highest office in the Republic," said Maimane.

As the ANC maintains a overwhelming majority in Parliament, impeaching the president is out of reach of the opposition parties. For the motion to succeed, it requires a two-thirds majority. Enditem