SANDU'S reaction to the the Military Prosecuting Authorities' decision on the "Guptagate" indictments of Lt Col's Stephan van Zyl & Christine Anderson

SANDF HQ, Pretoria, Tuesday, 20 January 2015

The Military Prosecuting Authorities have today informed the attorneys of indicted Air Force officers in the "Guptagate" matter, that all charges are forthwith withdrawn and, therefore, no prosecution will commence against them.

SANDU and the two officers are elated at this development. However, this matter should never even have implicated the two officers concerned in the first place. 

Furthermore, the fact that the authorities are now quietly attempting to walk away from this matter is somewhat of a cheap cop-out, after inflicting irreparable damage to the reputations of the two officers concerned. These officers had to wait sixteen months, since being promised a trial date after no less than three separate State-driven investigations, only to now be informed that the entire matter has been dropped. 

The only reasonable inference is that the authorities are too cowardly to have this matter heard at an independent forum, such as a court of law, for fear of the material flaws of their own investigations being exposed and, more importantly, the top level nepotism and corruption which enabled the landing of the plane at Waterkloof AFB. It has become clear that the entire process of the so-called investigations, thus far, was always aimed at the despicable ulterior motive of protecting the President and his political reputation at all costs.

SANDU confirms that both officers have already provided instructions to the SANDU legal team to immediately institute civil law suits against all the State organs which were involved in implicating them. 

In the respective hearings of those matters, the SANDU legal team will not hesitate to subpoena all relevant witnesses, including President Jacob Zuma and all members of his erstwhile cabinet, who participated in the Justice Cluster's so-called investigations, as well as Bruce Koloane, who played a central role in orchestrating the Gupta landing. 

SANDU's legal team has already demanded, earlier today, the immediate reinstatement of Lt Col van Zyl to his post at Air Force Command.

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Statement issued by Adv Pikkie Greeff, SANDU national secretary, January 20 2015

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