Zuma Corruption Charges: Zuma spends R10 million of taxpayer money evading justice

23 July 2016

Note to Editor: These remarks were made by the Chairperson of the DA’s Federal Executive, James Selfe MP, today at a press conference in Nelson Mandela Bay. He was joined by the DA’s Federal Chairperson and Mayoral Candidate for Nelson Mandela Bay, Athol Trollip. 

According to the DA’s research, the DA today reveals that the South African taxpayer has footed the bill for almost R10 million in legal fees for President Jacob Zuma’s legal fees and the exorbitant legal counsel.

Our research reveals that since 2009 President Zuma has spent an inordinate amount of taxpayers’ money on keeping himself from facing justice. This is despite there being no basic services for the millions of South Africans who so deserve them. 

Specifically, President Zuma has spent almost R10 million on the following:

This is the hallmark of frivolous expenditure for one man. This is set to rise since the President and his cronies at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) take this matter to the Constitutional Court. 

This is indicative of how much the ANC State has become preoccupied with protecting President Zuma and that alone. 

Throughout my time in Parliament I have watched the ANC become a shadow of itself and a shadow of what it was supposed to be.

The truth is that the ANC has changed and done so for the worse. The truth is that the ANC has done so for President Zuma who faces 783 charges.

This is also true of the Cabinet and the Ministers he has appointed to do his bidding.

True to the reports released earlier this year have revealed that government departments – at the behest of Ministers and Directors-General (D-G) – enter into and proceed with costly litigation despite senior legal advice that these cases are without any legal merit and are sure to be thrown out by the courts

This sort of frivolous litigation is something that we have seen play out in our courts time and time again. Most notably is the President’s defence of the Nkandla matter which ended in concession on the steps of the Constitutional Court with a massive team of 5 advocates for the President alone. Another such example is the Booysen matter where the State has lost more than five times in trying to get rid of the KZN Hawks boss, Johann Booysen, on baseless claims.

This is also true of the litigation around the suitability of Mr Hlaudi Motsoeneng to be the Chief Operating Officer of the SABC, which has involved the DA in four separate court cases. Subsequent events at Auckland Park have shown how justified we were in seeking his removal.

It is easy for the State to pursue litigation using other peoples’ money. It is our contention that the Ministers and Directors-General should be held liable and be made to pay personally for these exercises in wasting valuable financial resources.

This investigation vindicates the DA’s long-held position that the decision to drop the charges against Mr Zuma was indeed distinctly irrational and that it was not based in any cogent logic or law.

The truth is, despite what Jacob Zuma says, the record of decision reveals that:

The then acting National Director of Prosecutions (NDPP) Mikotedit Mpshe did not make his decision based on an assessment that his earlier decision to institute criminal proceedings against the President was flawed and;

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.

Statement issued by James Selfe MP, Chairperson of the DA’s Federal Executive, 24 July 2016