DHAKA: South Africa’s parliament is due to vote on an opposition-sponsored motion to impeach President Jacob Zuma.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) said he was no longer fit to govern after the country’s highest court ruled last week that he had breached the constitution by failing to repay public money used to upgrade his private residence.

The governing African National Congress (ANC) is expected to defeat the motion, reports the BBC.

It denounced the impeachment proceedings as a publicity stunt.

The DA said it would demand a secret ballot in the hope that ANC backbenchers would defy the party by helping it obtain the two-thirds majority - 267 MPs out of 400 - required in the lower house, the National Assembly, to impeach Zuma.

However, speaker Baleka Mbete has rejected the proposal, saying it is not allowed in terms of parliamentary rules, local media reports say.

The DA has 89 seats in parliament and all opposition parties combined 151.

Zuma is the first president to face impeachment proceedings since minority rule ended in 1994.

He has been dogged by allegations of corruption since before he was elected president in 2009.

BDST: 1711 HRS, APR 05, 2016
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