(Vatican Radio) South African President Jacob Zuma has survived an impeachment vote in Parliament launched after the Constitutional Court ruled he had ignored an order to repay state funds spent on his private home.
Zuma’s governing African National Congress (ANC) defeated the motion Tuesday afternoon, saying the President was not guilty of "serious misconduct".
But the fall-out from the crisis has engendered political and financial uncertainty in the nation struggling with unemployment, inequality and a plummeting currency.
The South African Jesuit Institute, like many other voices in the country, is calling for President Zuma to take the only moral option he now has: resign.
The director of Jesuit Institute in Johannesburg, Fr Russell Pollitt, told Linda Bordoni that the ANC seems to have betrayed its history and the legacy of having given birth to a democratic South Africa.
But first he explains the background to the latest scandal:
Listen:
Fr. Russell Pollitt SJ tells of how a couple of years ago Zuma spent an exorbitant 254 million South African Rands on his private residence in Kwa-Zulu Natal.
“Tax-payers money was used” and he was put under investigation by the Public Protector who found that Zuma had indeed used tax-payers money “and she ordered him to pay back an amount that should re-compensate the Treasury” he said.
Pollitt explains that Zuma refused causing a number of opposition parties to take him before the Constitutional Court with the accusation of having violated instructions by the Public Protector whom he claimed did not have a binding effect.
“The Constitutional Court heard the case and ruled that Zuma had indeed flouted the Constitution, that he had no reason to refuse to pay back the money, that the Public Protector’s findings were binding and therefore ordered that Treasury look for an amount of money that would satisfy whatever was spent on his private security upgrade” he said.
It was also found that Parliament itself (where the majority of members belong to the ANC) was found guilty of not holding Zuma accountable for the money he had spent.
“So it was a double-blow: the President was found to be wanting as far as the Constitution is concerned (…) and Parliament itself had failed in its duties to hold the President accountable” he said.
The actual vote saw the ANC closing ranks around Zuma and supporting him despite all. Now authoritative democratic voices across the nation are calling on the President to step down in the interest of the common good; they are also calling on ANC Parliament members to take stock of the situation and review their actions.
A statement issued by the Jesuit Institute in Johannesburg calls on “the National Assembly, who have collaborated in this, to repent their failure to honour the country’s Constitution. At the very least we should see a thorough going review of our electoral system including the possible direct popular election of the president and a public vetting of candidates for cabinet positions”.
It continues, calling on “the leaders of all faith communities to speak out. Since 1994 we have failed in our religious obligation to promote the common good and, particularly, address those most vulnerable in society. You can longer afford to be silent, lead your people!”
The Jesuit Institute also encourages ordinary South Africans “to channel disappointment and despair into action to help bring about the common good every concerned citizen desires”, to participate in legal, non-violent movement/s demanding accountability from leadership. To express their rejection of corruption.
Pollitt bitterly reflects on the fact that there is a strong feeling that Zuma and the current hierarchy of the ANC “have very much betrayed the vision of Mandela, the vision of the ANC, and have landed up becoming a corrupt organization.
He says “It’s a very sad moment, not only for South Africa, but also for the century old institution” which was a role model for so many as it brought about peaceful change and democracy to the nation.
Unfortunately, Pollitt concludes “the ANC seems to have betrayed its own history and its own integrity by what it is allowing to happen; and the key thing is that the Party itself doesn’t seem to be able to stand on the shoulders of giants like Mandela, like Walter Sisulu, and make the exacting decisions that need to be made at this time.”
