EFF counter-offer puts Zuma in a corner

President Jacob Zuma finds himself in a corner ahead of Tuesday’s Nkandla ‘pay back the money’ hearing at the Constitutional Court, courtesy of a counter-offer by the EFF, notes Legalbrief. According to a Business Day report, the EFF wants Zuma to accept he has breached the Constitution and his oath of office. It says the alternative proposal filed in court was in response to Zuma’s about-turn on Tuesday on the issue of paying back the money. The newspaper notes that if Zuma were to agree to this order, it would be an unprecedented concession. If he does not, the cases before the Constitutional Court wanting findings of the Public Protector on Nkandla to be implemented, will go ahead. EFF leader Julius Malema said yesterday: ‘This is not a case between Zuma and the EFF, this is a case to reaffirm the Constitution and to protect Chapter Nine institutions.’ In the surprise settlement proposal made by the State Attorney on behalf of Zuma, the President accepted that some of the upgrades such as the swimming pool and visitors centre were not security-related, and signalled he was willing to pay part of the R246m spent on upgrades. He asked that the Treasury and Auditor-General determine the amount. The EFF was content for the Auditor-General to work with a Treasury official to calculate the repayment sum. But the EFF’s draft order also includes declarations about the status of the Public Protector: that her constitutional power to take remedial action ‘includes the power to issue directions binding on organs of state’; that her directions in the Secure in Comfort report ‘were and remain binding’ on Zuma; and that the President ‘failed to implement the directions in breach of his oath of office and his duties under the … Constitution’.

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