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South Africa's Jacob Zuma faces impeachment vote

Cape Town - Zuma said that he never knowingly or deliberately set out to violate the constitution.

A day of high drama was expected in the House of Assembly in Cape Town on Tuesday where members of Parliament were to debate a motion to impeach President Jacob Zuma, brought by the Democratic Alliance (DA).

The motion comes after the Constitutional Court, in an unanimous judgment on Thursday, found that Zuma's failure to comply with the remedial action imposed on him by the public protector in her 2014 report on Nkandla was "inconsistent" with the Constitution, BDlive reported.

Outlining the party's plans to press for Zuma's impeachment on Friday, Maimane listed a litany of alleged indictments against the behaviour of the executive branch of government.

The DA would be campaigning to give the "legislature back its teeth" but more broadly would be appealing for the electorate to "vote for change", he said at a media briefing in Sandton.

On Friday, the 73-year-old president gave a televised address to the nation in which he apologised and said he would pay back some of the money, as ordered. He said that he never knowingly or deliberately set out to violate the constitution .

The president travelled to his home province of Kwazulu-Natal on Sunday to launch a relief programme as part of government efforts to support areas affected by South Africa's worst drought in more than a century.

He told a cheering crowd that he was still South Africa's leader and joked about how youthful he was, but made no specific mention of the Nkandla matter, the pending impeachment motion or calls for him to step down as he addressed the gathering in Zulu, his native language.