The Constitutional Court has found in a majority judgment that Parliament failed to hold President Jacob Zuma accountable following the court’s ruling on Nkandla.
Justice Chris Jafta read the judgment on Friday morning. He said there are four judgments – but one majority judgment that will be binding.
The case is not actually about impeaching Zuma, but about how Parliament should scrutinise Zuma’s conduct after it was found that he had violated the Constitution.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and other parties brought the case in a bid to seek impeachment proceedings against the President over upgrades to his private home at Nkandla, which were found to be unconstitutional.
This is on grounds that no action has been taken against Zuma after the court ruling in March 2016 which found that the President failed to uphold, defend and respect the Constitution.
The applicants which include the Congress of the People (COPE) and the United Democratic Movement (UDM) approached the court seeking a declaratory order to direct Parliament to consider President Zuma’s conduct and whether he is impeachable following the court’s March 2016 ruling that he had broken his oath of office and the country’s Constitution.
The orders include one declaring that National Assembly speaker Baleka 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 Public Protector’s report into the Nkandla debacle in 2014.
Mbete’s lawyers argued that the Speaker’s office would be acting inconsistently if it were to remove President Zuma.
Watch full judgement below
