Zuma should now face prosecution on corruption charges

24 June 2016

The DA is pleased at the North Gauteng High Court’s dismissal of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and President Jacob Zuma’s application for leave to appeal in the matter relating to the 783 charges of corruption levelled against President Zuma which the DA and the court contend were irrationally dropped in the first place. 

This is a victory for the Rule of Law and due process and upholds the principle that no man is or should be above the law.

The full bench of the Court determined that a different court would not find differently in this regard and that in fact that the government respondents failed to advance any legitimate reasons to see leave to appeal granted.

On this basis the prosecution against President Jacob must proceed and he must have his day in court as he has always claimed he wanted. The charges are in fact automatically reinstated and the NPA must give President Zuma a date by which he is to appear in court. 

The President and the NPA are well within their rights to petition the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) and the Constitutional Court however this move is likely to be unsuccessful. As such any attempts to pursue this course of action would be a spectacular waste of taxpayers’ money. 

With every interaction with the respondents in this review application it becomes more and more apparent that the decision to discontinue the prosecution was informed by political considerations and not considerations based in law. This is inherently irrational and was the basis on which the decision was set aside.

It has always been  our contention that the record of decision reveals that:

- Mpshe did not make his decision based on an assessment that his earlier decision to institute criminal proceedings against the President was flawed;

- He did not make his decision based on any new information;

- He did not make his decision based on  any substantive content of the indictment containing the charges or on concerns about the prosecuting team.

In the absence of any legitimate factual or legal reasons, the DA is led to believe that these charges were dropped to serve a political agenda. It would have been for President Zuma to argue that he was being prosecuted for malicious political reasons and for a competent court to decide on the merits of such representations. It was not for the NPA, acting at the President’s behest, to simply drop the charges without legal basis.

As such, NPA Head, Adv Shaun Abrahams, must desisit with frivolous litigation and give the President his court date once and for all.

Issued by James Selfe, Chairperson of the DA's Federal Executive, 24 June 2016