South Africa’s top court on Thursday delivered a damning verdict against President Jacob Zuma, saying he flouted the constitution over public funds used to upgrade his private residence, sparking immediate calls for him to be impeached.
Zuma “failed to uphold, defend and respect the constitution as the supreme law of the land,” Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng said in a strongly-worded ruling from the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg.
The court judgment came as Zuma fights back against separate allegations that a wealthy Indian family influenced ministerial appointments in a scandal that has rocked his government.
Zuma has also been battered by the country’s sharply declining economy. But he retains a strong grip on parliament through his dominant leadership of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, and any impeachment bid looked unlikely to succeed. The so-called “security” upgrades at Zuma’s rural homestead, which were valued in 2014 at 216 million rand (then $24 million), included a swimming pool, a chicken run, a cattle enclosure and an amphitheatre.
“The president must personally pay the amount determined by the national treasury,” Mogoeng said on Thursday.
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某些平台居然封杀临时邮箱域名？！咋的，怕我白嫖完就跑？这波属于双向嫌弃了。