JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's top court has ruled that President Jacob Zuma has flouted the constitution in using public funds to upgrade his private residence, and must repay the money. The decision has further sparked calls for his impeachment.
The court delivered a damning verdict on Zuma's conduct after a swimming pool, chicken run, cattle enclosure and amphitheatre were built at his rural homestead- at Nkandla in rural KwaZulu-Natal, on the base of so-called “security” measures. Zuma refused an ombudswoman's orders to repay the money spent on the upgrades. Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng said Zuma “failed to uphold, defend and respect the constitution as the supreme law of the land.” Public Prosecutor Thuli Madonsela, the country's ombudswoman ruled in 2014 that Zuma had “benefited unduly” from the work on the Nkandla property in KwaZulu-Natal province, and that he should refund some of the money.
The president responded by ordering two government investigations that cleared his name; including a report by the police minister which concluded that the swimming pool was a fire-fighting precaution. Mogoeng said on Thursday that Zuma “must personally pay the amount determined by the national treasury.” The work was valued in 2014 at 216 million rand (then $24 million). “President Jacob Zuma's action amounts to a serious violation of the constitution, and constitutes grounds for impeachment,” the Democratic Alliance (DA), South Africa's main opposition party , said. It added that it had officially begun the process to impeach Zuma.
