After two years of ignoring criticism, a court on Thursday ruled against South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma for “state spending on his private home, even when critics scoffed at the notion that a swimming pool and a chicken run were necessary security features,” reports the Washington Post.
Within 60 days, the national treasury must calculate costs of upgrades unrelated to security at Zuma’s home and the president must repay that amount within 45 days thereafter, the court said.
Via the Post:
[He] “failed to uphold” the constitution when he didn’t pay back some of the more than $20 million in state funds used to upgrade his rural home, South Africa’s Constitutional Court ruled unanimously on Thursday.
The ruling could significantly weaken the leader, who is fending off multiple accusations of alleged misconduct at the highest levels of government, though he still retained the support of powerful factions in his party, the African National Congress.
The report notes that until now, Zuma had “survived a string of scandals — from his acquittal for rape in 2006 to the most recent allegation that his friends have the freedom to appoint cabinet ministers.”
SOURCE: Washington Post | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty | VIDEO CREDIT: Inform
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