Johannesburg - DA leader Mmusi Maimane has given President Jacob Zuma five days to reprimand ministers in government over the Nkandla saga.
Maimane on Friday led thousands of DA supporters through the streets of Hillbrow in Joburg as the party marched to Constitution Hill to defend what it termed the trampling of the country’s supreme law by Zuma and the ANC.
Read: ‘Zuma is a tsotsi’
Speaking outside the Constitutional Court, Maimane lambasted Zuma over Nkandla. He labelled him a “thief”, adding that the president’s time was up, and that he had to relinquish his position as the country’s leader.
“Jacob Zuma is not a constitutionalist. He doesn’t believe in the rule of law - he believes in the rule of man. The rule of law tells us that no one is above the law; but Jacob Zuma is a thief, and we know him. You can’t be a thief alone - you need other thieves,” he said to the applauses of supporters.
Read: DA supporters #MarchForChange - PICS
Maimane said that in his ruling Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng had ordered the president to take action against the minister of police and those in the National Assembly.
Maimane said 14 days had passed since the order had been made, but Zuma had still not acted in any way. Instead, he had gone to Port Elizabeth to lie to the masses.
“I’ve written to Jacob Zuma to tell him to reprimand his ministers. If he doesn’t do so in the next five days, I will be back here to ask Judge Mogoeng Mogoeng to act, as he (Zuma) would have been in contempt of the court.”
In Mogoeng the country had found a judge who had a “spine”.
“When Jacob Zuma stole the money, he didn’t steal from faceless taxpayers. He stole from people in Protea Glen who today are without houses, and from those who get social grants. We are here to say: 'Jacob Zuma, your days are numbered.' We want the courts to chop off the ugly head of impunity. This is why corruption charges against him must be reinstated.”
The Constitutional Court ordered the Treasury to determine the reasonable costs of measures implemented by the Department of Public Works at Nkandla, particularly those that do not relate to security.
Saturday Star
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