29th February, 2016
President Jacob Zuma is gearing himself for a tumultuous day on Tuesday with the Gauteng High Court addressing his corruption case and Parliament voting on an impeachment order against him.
The official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) which has spent the past six years challenging the dropping of corruption charges against Zuma, which paved the way for him to become President, will finally be able to urge the courts to set aside the 2009 ruling on the grounds it was irrational in law and unconstitutional.
This was after former National Director of Public Prosecutions Mokotedi Mpshe successfully argued that the legal process had been abused and it would be unethical to allow the case against Zuma to proceed.
Meanwhile, an online platform established to support calls for Zuma’s impeachment has received more than 800, 000 signatories ahead of this week’s Motion of no confidence vote.
The online petition calls for all 72 Ministers and Deputy Ministers to be excluded from the vote on the Motion.
It said “due to the glaring conflict of interest between their official responsibilities and their private interests”.
The DA said it had written to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Baleka Mbete, requesting that the voting be done via secret ballot.
According to the report, the opposition party said that this is to ensure that MPs were not threatened with fear of internal persecution and were able to vote with their conscience.
Zuma has also come under considerable fire following claims that his administration is targeting Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.
The issue revolves around a so called rogue unit set up at the treasury allegedly investigated Zuma and his allies.
On Friday, Gordhan issued a statement saying, there is a group which is not interested in the welfare of the country, but only in disrupting institutions and destroying reputations.
In an interesting twist, the ruling African National Congress has come out in support of Gordhan, leaving Zuma increasingly isolated.