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Zuma could still have his day in court

ON TUESDAY this week, the majority of South Africa’s parliamentarians made it clear that whatever President Jacob Zuma might have allegedly done to undermine the rule of law and the constitution in failing to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, they did not want him removed from office for this.

In June Zuma’s government ignored the North Gauteng High Court’s order to stop Al-Bashir from leaving South Africa. This week the official opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA), tabled a motion to impeach Zuma in the National Assembly for his failure to arrest the Sudanese president, who is wanted by the Hague-based International Criminal Court for war crimes.

The motion was rejected. There were just 100 votes in favour of impeachment, with 211 against and 17 abstentions, rendering the DA’s impeachment motion a total flop.

During the debate to impeach Zuma, DA leader Mmusi Maimane accused him of trampling on the constitution and the rule of law.

“Our broken president broke the law to protect yet another broken man,” he said in an apparent reference to Al-Bashir.

I take the firm view that, once this headline-grabbing scandal came out, Zuma should have shown some respect for his office by making an off-the-cuff statement in response or trying to clear the air around this matter.

Once it was clear that Zuma seemed to feel there was no disgrace around the Al-Bashir matter, the DA settled for impeachment as a constitutional way for an ad hoc committee to start an inquiry into the matter.

It seemed likely that such a committee could continue with a thorough inquiry that would tie up some of Zuma’s loose ends and even expose new proof of misconduct.

However, the not unexpected outcome of the motion was rejection. Impeachment is often a political route as much as a judicial one. It is not a good option when it is only supported by weak political parties. Only the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the African Christian Democratic Party and the Freedom Front Plus supported the DA’s impeachment motion.

Additionally, the EFF wanted the impeachment process to include the Marikana massacre and the wasteful expenditure used in renovating Zuma’s Nkandla homestead.

That the DA’s impeachment issue closed the way it did this week has made some South Africans unhappy. However, closing the matter now looks the best option.

There are other ways to bring to book a president who has allegedly shown total disregard for the rule of law, particularly in the Al-Bashir matter. But all of them become tougher, if not unworkable, once an impeachment process has been tried and rejected, as this one was. In that sense, an impeachment inquiry of this lukewarm sort only plays into Zuma’s hands. Its flop really looks like a triumph for him.

But a future trial can change this. Presidents once out of office are answerable to prosecution in the courts of law like any other civilian. Such a trial would not be impossible.

It could be that evidence is being gathered as we speak. A prosecutor could be more than ready, I suspect. I have heard, again from the DA, that there are hundreds of charges allegedly facing Zuma once he steps down from his current position. I am just wondering if the Al-Bashir matter is not the latest inclusion in the charges.

*Mzwandile Jacks is an independent journalist. Opinions expressed are his own.

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