2013 has been the year of online petitions. Whether they have any effect besides voicing the displeasure, is up for debate. Nevertheless, what may well be the last viral South African petition of 2013 is currently in blossom, and it’s calling for Parliament to impeach Jacob Zuma.

The petition calls for the impeachment of Zuma on the following grounds:

The leaked Public Protector report on Nkandla proves that president Zuma lied to parliament and personally benefitted from over R200 million of public money (without proper tender). Further, he personally intervened, unlawfully, by appointing his own architect over those already employed by the department of public works.

Petitions have no legal bearing, so this thing won’t count.

What will count is if Thuli Madonsela’s yet-to-be-released report on the R206 million upgrades  at Zuma’s private Nkandla homestead in KwaZulu-Natal contained findings that he had misled Parliament.

If that happens, the DA parliamentary leader, Lindiwe Mazibuko has indicated that she would table a motion to put together an ad hoc committee to investigate whether or not the president deliberately misled the House.

Again, whether he did mislead the House or not is immaterial. Impeachment requires proof of deliberate deception.

In March, Zuma told Parliament he was never informed about the costs of renovations to his homestead.

Obviously, the ANC would attempt to block the formation of such a committee, and the necessity therefore would have to be argued in court before any such investigation could occur.

By which time, this petition will have been forgotten.

[Source : News24]