Cape Town – The African National Congress (ANC) has endorsed a report by its National Working Committee that backs President Jacob Zuma and attempts to draw a line under the drawn-out Nkandla saga ahead of another opposition motion on Tuesday afternoon to remove him from office.
ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said a meeting of the party’s NWC on Monday night insisted that last week’s damning Constitutional Court judgment ordering Zuma to pay for improvements to his private home be implemented “to the letter”.
But Mantashe made it clear that this would be the end of the matter and that in the ruling party’s reading of it, the judgment did not carry further legal consequences for the president. Nor will the ANC take political action against him.
The ANC NWC’s seven-hour meeting came just days after Zuma in a televised address apologised for long failing to heed a directive by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela that he pay for Nakandla security improvements, but defied mounting calls that he step down.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) called for Zuma to be impeached as soon as Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng delivered the Nkandla judgment last Thursday and its motion to this effect will be debated in the National Assembly on Tuesday afternoon.
The official opposition is urging the president’s removal on the grounds that he has committed “a serious violation of the Constitution or the law”.
It was not yet clear how other opposition parties would vote.
ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa said the ruling party caucus was meeting in Parliament on Tuesday morning ahead of the vote.
African News Agency