THE DA’s parliamentary leader, Lindiwe Mazibuko, this week received a great deal of attention when, referring to Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s report on President Jacob Zuma’s massive spending on his house in Nkandla, she said: "Impeachment is the correct course of action for this flagrant abuse of public money."
Some parties and commentators joined the fray as well, calling for Zuma’s impeachment. Just the mere reference to the word has become adequate to incite many in the DA movement to be emotionally stirred.
Just to recap, last week Madonsela’s report found that Zuma and his family had excessively gained from the improvements to his Nkandla private residence.
Turning to the impeachment process, I can simply say that regrettably, talks of an impeachment against Zuma are a pointless waste of time.
For Zuma to be impeached, a modest majority in the National Assembly must support and vote for this move.
ANC members in the National Assembly will never vote against one of their own, especially when they are being urged to do so by the DA, which they view in bad light.
Remember, the DA has been criticised many times by the ANC for being a party that is set to maintain white privileges in South Africa.
I attended a couple of Human Rights Day celebrations last week - a day or two after Madonsela’s report came out – and I can tell you Zuma still commands support among many leaders and rank-and-file ANC members.
This tells me that Mazibuko and her cohorts should stop kidding themselves. Impeachment will not succeed.
Even if Zuma were to be gotten rid of through the impeachment process, what do we expect would occur? Well, the instant impact would be that his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, would become president of the country.
That could be a calamity for the DA and opposition parties which support the idea of impeachment.
Ramaphosa’s presidency would be like that of former South African presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. It will, I seriously believe, be less erratic and the DA will be unable take frequent pot shots at the government like it is doing right now under Zuma's corrupt government.
This week the former leader of the DA in its early days, Tony Leon, warned his former party against using the tactic of attacking Zuma all the time, saying this could only work now but not in the future.
He told Business Day that the DA would struggle to position itself to face different opponents in the ruling party, such as Ramaphosa, who would be more difficult to attack.
If Zuma were to be removed, Ramaphosa could come in and have the best of both worlds. He could keep the mouth of the DA shut and distance himself from every horrible Zuma practice.
This could lead to the slow death of the official opposition party, which sought to get mileage by only paying attention to criticising Zuma and nothing else.
Let us wait to see what will happen to the request Mazibuko made to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Max Sisulu, to recall the National Assembly as a matter of urgency to initiate impeachment proceedings against Zuma.
- Fin24
*Mzwandile Jacks is an independent journalist. Opinions expressed are his own.
Some parties and commentators joined the fray as well, calling for Zuma’s impeachment. Just the mere reference to the word has become adequate to incite many in the DA movement to be emotionally stirred.
Just to recap, last week Madonsela’s report found that Zuma and his family had excessively gained from the improvements to his Nkandla private residence.
Turning to the impeachment process, I can simply say that regrettably, talks of an impeachment against Zuma are a pointless waste of time.
For Zuma to be impeached, a modest majority in the National Assembly must support and vote for this move.
ANC members in the National Assembly will never vote against one of their own, especially when they are being urged to do so by the DA, which they view in bad light.
Remember, the DA has been criticised many times by the ANC for being a party that is set to maintain white privileges in South Africa.
I attended a couple of Human Rights Day celebrations last week - a day or two after Madonsela’s report came out – and I can tell you Zuma still commands support among many leaders and rank-and-file ANC members.
This tells me that Mazibuko and her cohorts should stop kidding themselves. Impeachment will not succeed.
Even if Zuma were to be gotten rid of through the impeachment process, what do we expect would occur? Well, the instant impact would be that his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, would become president of the country.
That could be a calamity for the DA and opposition parties which support the idea of impeachment.
Ramaphosa’s presidency would be like that of former South African presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. It will, I seriously believe, be less erratic and the DA will be unable take frequent pot shots at the government like it is doing right now under Zuma's corrupt government.
This week the former leader of the DA in its early days, Tony Leon, warned his former party against using the tactic of attacking Zuma all the time, saying this could only work now but not in the future.
He told Business Day that the DA would struggle to position itself to face different opponents in the ruling party, such as Ramaphosa, who would be more difficult to attack.
If Zuma were to be removed, Ramaphosa could come in and have the best of both worlds. He could keep the mouth of the DA shut and distance himself from every horrible Zuma practice.
This could lead to the slow death of the official opposition party, which sought to get mileage by only paying attention to criticising Zuma and nothing else.
Let us wait to see what will happen to the request Mazibuko made to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Max Sisulu, to recall the National Assembly as a matter of urgency to initiate impeachment proceedings against Zuma.
- Fin24
*Mzwandile Jacks is an independent journalist. Opinions expressed are his own.