The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Tuesday gave notice of a motion of impeachment against President Jacob Zuma for allowing his Sudanese counterpart to leave the country in defiance of a court order, DA leader Mmusi Maimane said.

“The events that led to the escape of (President Omar) al-Bashir represent a clear violation of the president’s oath to ‘obey, uphold, observer and maintain the Constitution and all other laws of the republic’ and serve as nothing less than grounds for his removal from office in terms of section 89(1)(a) of the Constitution,” Maimane told the National Assembly.

Maimane said Cabinet disregarded South Africa’s legal obligations to the International Criminal Court when it granted al-Bashir immunity while attending the African Union summit in South Africa in June and subsequently allowed him to leave the country while a high court had ordered that he not be allowed to depart.

“President Zuma, as head of the Cabinet, bears ultimate responsibility for this decision.”

Maimane said the DA would move to have the motion debated in the National Assembly on August 18.

However, African National Congress chief whip Stone Sizani’s office called the DA motion a publicity stunt.

“Section 89 of the Constitution states amongst others that the President may only be removed from office for a serious violation of the Constitution or the law. No court of law has ever found the President guilty of violation of the law or the Constitution,” Sizani’s office said in a statement.

“In the absence of any constitutional or legal basis, Mmusi Maimane’s motion amounts to political posturing and is not worth the paper it is written on.”