SOUTH AFRICA’S ruling alliance yesterday attacked opposition attempts to impeach President Jacob Zuma as “a blatant abuse of serious constitutional provisions.”

The Democratic Alliance (DA) brought the parliamentary motion against Mr Zuma on Tuesday evening over the government’s failure to comply with a court order to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in June.

Mr Bashir was in Johannesburg for an African Union summit, enjoying diplomatic immunity, when an NGO petitioned a local court to order his arrest on charges brought by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

The result of Tuesday’s vote was a foregone conclusion, since the African National Congress holds 249 seats in the 400-seat Cape Town parliament to the DA’s 89.

The South African Communist Party condemned the opposition stunt, saying: “The workers and the poor are denied an opportunity to have parliament focus on their plight as more time is wasted on frivolous motions.”