SACP Statement on the decision by the NPA not to continue with prosecution of President of the ANC
The SACP welcomes the decision of the National Prosecuting Authority not to proceed with the prosecution of the President of the ANC, Cde Jacob Zuma. Not only do we feel vindicated, but we feel angered that it has taken this long, and at such waste to taxpayers' money, for the NPA to ‘find out' what the majority of South Africans have always known - Zuma's prosecution was a politically inspired persecution whose aim was to prevent him from becoming the President of the ANC and of the republic.
Now is the time for a thorough and critical review of a number of key institutions in our country, and principally the criminal justice system. Going into the future, how do we prevent critical state organs from being used to pursue personal, political and other illegal agendas of individuals placed in position of responsibility? We would be failing in our responsibilities if we missed this opportunity, it provides us with a window into serious challenges we confront within our democratic institutions fifteen years into our democracy.
Besides the justice system and the credibility of the NPA, the mainstream media should hang its head in shame.
Since the infamous off-the-record briefing by the former head of the NPA, and former Minister of Justice, Penuell Maduna, most of the media have, over the last nine years, invested huge amounts of energy and resources on destroying Zuma, factionalising our Alliance, and defending class elites around this matter. The media, to all intents and purposes, ceased informing the South African public in any manner remotely close to impartiality. In all this, as we have always said, the media has been driven by its now unmasked support for the agenda of the rich and powerful, demonizing Zuma because they feared his support among the workers, the rural and urban poor, and the great majority of the marginalized of our country. It was for these reasons that the media used the charges against Zuma to enter into factionalist battles within the ANC and our Alliance.
From the run-up to the Stellenbosch Conference of the ANC, tied mind, body and soul to the off the record briefing, editors have in the run-up to each significant political moment in the country played their part to prejudice and damage Zuma. Their efforts to deprive him of popular support have failed.
The media, the supposed watchdog, turned a blind eye to the findings of the Public Protector that Cde Zuma's rights had been violated. Instead, we were told by the supposed "champions" of the rule of law, that this violation of rights was irrelevant.
In one of his findings, Judge Hefer at the Hefer Commission made the following important observation:
'However, I find Mr Maharaj's evidence most disturbing. As I have already said, it is beyond doubt that leaks did occur. I have also indicated that it is highly likely that the guilty party was within Mr Ngcuka's office and we have it from Mr Ngcuka himself that he or she could not be traced. Such a state of affairs cannot be tolerated. In a country such as ours where human dignity is a basic constitutional value and every person is presumed to be innocent until he or she is found guilty, this is wholly unacceptable. Section 41(6)(a) of the Prosecuting Authority Act was not enacted for nothing and as long as someone in the National Director's office keeps flouting the prohibition against the disclosure of information, one cannot be assured that the Prosecuting Authority is being used for the purpose for which it was intended.'
We now know that Ngcuka, over and above convening the off-the-record briefing, refusing to co-operate with the Public Protector and publicly vilifying him, continued with a vendetta against Mr Zuma and exerted influence over officials within the NPA.
When the NPA conducted Hollywood-style raids on the homes of Cde Zuma and the homes and offices of those associated with him, there was no sense of concern in the media. When the constitutional court made pronouncements on the well established principle of attorney client privilege, which many South Africans found problematic, the mainstream media turned a blind eye to legitimate concerns.
Following Judge Nicholson's judgement, he was pilloried in the media, and by some in the legal fraternity. In many ways, today's decision, vindicates Judge Nicholson's judgement.
We equally remain convinced that the Supreme Court of Appeal erred in its decision in reversing the Nicholson judgement. This error was not the first time that we have seen the SCA behaving clumsily in this matter. Earlier they erroneously attributed the phrase ‘generally corrupt relationship' to Judge Squires who later had to clarify the matter.
In their drive to nail Zuma, it is now known that former Scorpions Boss Leonard McCarthy was allowed free rein including relying on illegal intelligence gathering to compile the so-called Special Browse Mole report. Apart from being a blatant fabrication, the report was exceedingly irresponsible in that it alleged all kinds of external involvement by friendly foreign governments in internal South African politics. Once more, the media turned a blind eye to this. We were promised action against those who were involved in the generation of this document. Has anyone been investigated? Has the media even bothered to ask this question?
In the context of all of this, the SACP notes with appreciation the statesman-like and magnanimous way in which the President of the ANC has welcomed and responded to the NPA decision. This will go a long way in laying a foundation for the thorough transformation and strengthening of our criminal justice system.
We also hope that all South Africans, especially the media, will respect the decision of the NPA and that Cde Zuma is innocent of any wrongdoing.
We feel a sense of vindication today as we have consistently raised the alarm about blatant abuses of power in the investigation against the ANC President - only to face derision from the media. It took one of the NPA's own, the Acting National Director Advocate Mokotedi Mpshe to spell it out clearly to the nation today:
"Using one's sense of justice and propriety as a yardstick by which McCarthy's abuse of the process is measured, an intolerable abuse has occurred which compels a discontinuation of the prosecution."
The SACP therefore calls for the following actions to be immediately taken:
- All those found to have been responsible for abuse of state institutions must be immediately brought to book, irrespective of the position they occupy or may have occupied, in order to ensure that such things never ever happen again in our country
- Parliament must call the NPA and any other state institutions that may be found to have transgressed to law to fully account for their actions
- Parliament to also urgently attend to provide legislative clarity to, and address, all legal loopholes they may have been identified during the unfolding of this saga, including the relationship between the executive and the NPA as well as matters relating to attorney-client privileges
- Prioritising the urgency of the transformation of our criminal justice system, including the judiciary. For instance the lacksaidal approach of the judiciary in the face of serious abuse of state institutions is something that must be of serious concern to all South African
- The executive and parliament to act on the many glaring failures and indecisiveness in dealing with the findings of the Public Protector, the Hefer Commission, the Special Browse Mole, etc. These failures, commissions and omission were not just accidental but constituted a pattern pointing to a well co-ordinated political plot, as eloquently spelt out by Judge Nicholson.
The laid-back attitude of the judiciary in the face of such manipulation and abuse of the NPA has once more posed serious challenges for the transformation of the judiciary. The decision of the NPA also vindicates the SACP's stance that justice does not begin with appearance before a court of law, but it starts with fairness in the manner in which cases are investigated.
The SACP would like to thank the millions of the ordinary people, the working class and the poor of this country for standing up against this injustice. The SACP also wishes to thank the legal team of the President of the ANC for a job well done. Theirs will go down in history as having contributed immensely in protecting the rule of law and our constitution.
Statement issued by the South African Communist Party, April 6 2009
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