Zuma failed duties as President – EFF papers

A President who enriched himself at the public’s expense divided the nation and undermined the Constitution, says the EFF in papers lodged at the Constitutional Court yesterday. It wants the court to order President Jacob Zuma to pay back a portion of the reasonable costs of some of the upgrades to his private Nkandla home, as directed by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, notes a Business Day report. It says the EFF’s legal argument is different to what was considered by the SCA in its recent judgment concerning the SABC and its chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng. The EFF’s case focuses on the specific duties of the President and of Parliament with regard to the findings of the Public Protector. In heads of argument, the EFF’s counsel, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, notes the 'primary focus is the constitutional obligations of Parliament and the President'. The Constitution entrusted the President with a ‘unique and heightened’ role, said Ngcukaitobi. Section 83(c) reads, ‘the President promotes the unity of the nation and that which will advance the Constitution’. Ngcukaitobi said this meant that, under the Constitution, the President – ‘more than any other organ of state’ – had to pay attention to the findings of the Chapter Nine institutions, especially the Public Protector. The fact that Parliament, which had a constitutional duty to hold the executive to account, was yet to require compliance from Zuma was ‘wholly illegal’, he said. Parliament also failed in ensuring that he account for putting his own interest ahead of the state. Ngcukaitobi argued that allegations of these kinds of failure could be decided only by the Constitutional Court.

Full City Press report