S. African parliament to review rules for impeaching president

CAPE TOWN, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's parliament said on Sunday it would deliberate on a draft procedure for impeaching President Jacob Zuma.

Deliberations, scheduled for Jan. 10-11, would be conducted in line with a ruling of the Constitutional Court, Parliament's Subcommittee on Review of Rules said.

The court handed down the judgment on Dec. 29 last year that the National Assembly had failed to put in place proper rules for holding Zuma accountable for his alleged involvement in the Nkandla scandal, in which Zuma was accused of abusing public funding worth 246 million rand (about 20 million U.S. dollars) in security upgrades at his private home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal Province.

The court ordered the National Assembly to make such rules without delay to initiate a process under section 89 of the constitution.

Section 89 of the constitution deals with the removal of the president on the grounds of a serious violation of the constitution or the law, serious misconduct, or inability to perform the functions of office.

"In keeping with the assembly's commitment to comply fully with the Constitutional Court's majority judgment, Members of Parliament serving on the National Assembly Rules Subcommittee have been notified of the forthcoming meetings and supplied with documents to be considered there," parliamentary spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said.

The documents include a draft procedure drawn up in April 2016, but not finalized, and a comparative study, compiled in 2015, about impeachment proceedings of seven other Parliaments on the removal of a head of state, according to Mothapo.

The draft procedure, once finalized by the subcommittee, would need to be adopted by the National Assembly as part of the assembly's rules, said Mothapo.

Zuma has come under growing pressure to resign.

The Sunday Times reported that the clock was ticking on Zuma's presidency as the newly-elected Deputy President of the African National Congress (ANC) David Mabuza held talks with Zuma on Saturday.

Mabuza is believed to support the removal of Zuma, with some senior leaders saying the meeting could be part of the process of persuading him to resign, the report said.

If Zuma refuses to resign, he would be impeached, according to the report. Enditem