Johannesburg - The Democratic Alliance has written to National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete requesting President Jacob Zuma to reprimand his cabinet over the Nkandla debacle within five days, DA leader Mmusi Maimane said on Friday.
“It has been 14 days since the Constitutional Court ruling in which Zuma was instructed to also reprimand his ministers who disregarded the constitution and the Public Protector Thuli Madonsela,” Maimane told supporters outside the Constitutional Court in Braamfontein.
“Zuma has not done that, he is in contempt of court so far… he is at Nelson Mandela Bay lying to residents there. We want Zuma to openly reprimand his cronies in Parliament within five days. If that does not happen, we will come back to this court and ask it to rescue us from this impunity.”
He said the DA march to the court, calling for Zuma to resign, was done because his party respected the constitution.
“No DA leader has a public protector report against them. We respect the law and the constitution. We marched here to reaffirm the importance of the constitution. In Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng we have a judge with a spine… along with the rest of the Constitutional Court judges.”
“Zuma is a tsotsi [criminal] and a tsotsi needs the support of other tsotsis to do whatever he wants to do. This is why you will never see ANC leaders such as (Rob) Davies, (Cyril) Ramaphosa and (Jeff) Radebe in Parliament, but when word goes out claiming Zuma is under attack, they all run to Cape Town to defend him… because corruption runs deep in the ANC.”
Maimane said replacing Zuma “with another ANC tsotsi” would not help South Africans. The ruling party needed to be voted out of power.
“The fish rots from the head down… the whole of the ANC is rotten. Replacing Zuma with another crony will not help us, dear democrats. Let us vote the ANC out in Ekurhuleni, Tshwane and Johannesburg metros…go door to door with the constitution in your hand and urge South Africans to vote for change.”
Last month’s Constitutional Court judgement found that Zuma and the National Assembly failed to uphold and protect the Constitution by disregarding Madonsela’s report on the costly upgrades to the president’s private Nkandla home.
Zuma has since apologised publicly and said he would respect the court order that he repay the state an amount to be determined by National Treasury for luxuries added to the property.
DA supporters, clad in blue party regalia, on Friday marched and hoisted placards calling for Zuma to resign. The signs read: “Vote for change”, “Stop Corruption” and “ANC must go” as thousands marched through Hillbrow to the court.
They were led by Maimane, Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille and Gauteng DA leader John Moodey. Young and old carried placards, while bottles of water were supplied at the start of the march to help marchers cope with the heat. The marchers followed a DA-branded truck blasting out songs about Maimane and the DA from the loud speakers.
African News Agency
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