DA impeachment threat 'laughable': ANC chief whip

The ANC has dismissed Lindiwe Mazibuko's threat to file impeachment procedings against President Jacob Zuma should he be implicated in the National Prosecuting authority's Nkandla report.

"I want to use this opportunity to send a very clear message to our honourable members, that should the honourable president be involved in any wrongdoing in the public protector's report on the Nkandla scandal, I will not hesitate to table a motion to impeach him in this House," DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said.

"We are aware that, with the election looming, some political leaders will blow plenty of hot air at every direction in order to grab as many headlines as possible - including attempting to influence the outcome of the Public Protector investigations. The DA leader's statement yesterday should therefore be understood within this context," the ANC chief whip's office said in a statement.

The statement also claimed that;"There are opposition parties in Parliament who have offered the electorate no alternative or creative ideas since 2009 except to repeatedly call for the President of the country to resign."

"We have no doubt that the utterances by the DA leader yesterday were deliberately designed to exert pressure on the Public Protector to find President Zuma guilty ahead of the release of her report on Nkandla security upgrades," the statement said.

The party also came under fire for its poor perfomance regarding service delivery, with IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi saying government had failed the country under Zuma.

"Twenty years ago, words like 'rainbow nation', 'miracle transition', 'freedom', and 'reconciliation' filled the public discourse. Under your leadership, Mr President, those words have become 'Marikana', 'scandal', 'protest', and 'corruption'," Buthelezi said.

"Is it any wonder that township after township in the provinces you govern are going up in flames?" Congress of the People leader Mosiuoa Lekota asked.

The statement from the ANC chief whip's office dismissed these complaints however, saying "The African National Congress indeed has a good story to tell regarding its 20 years of unbroken quality and competent service to the people of South Africa, particularly the poor."