Spy Tapes: NPA fails to meet deadline of court order

30 March 2015

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has today missed a third consecutive deadline to file its answering affidavit to the DA's application for a review of the decision to drop over 700 charges of corruption against President Jacob Zuma. 

If the NPA fails to file its papers by tomorrow the DA will seek a contempt of court order against them.

The NPA was on 16 March 2015 compelled by an order of court to have filed its answering affidavit in this matter by the close of business today. 

Instead they have missed yet another deadline, this time in contravention of a court order. Indeed last time the lateness was attributed to time constraints. Today, however, the reasons for this dithering are unclear.

The DA, its attorneys and the NPA agreed to extend the deadline until today, only for the deadline to lapse once again for no apparent reason.

It is our contention that the record of decision in the Spy Tapes saga reveals that the then NPA boss Mokotedi 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 an insidious political agenda.

It has been our belief that the President may indeed not be guilty of corruption but must, like any other citizen, have his day in court. This notion is critical to our justice system, and the President, as one of the custodians of our democracy, should give meaning to this principle. 

Instead he has, through various directors of public prosecutions including Mpshe and Jiba, used taxpayers' money to bankroll the disappearance of these Spy Tapes that his legal counsel have conceded contain nothing that warranted the dropping of corruption charges against him.

The NPA must immediately make clear the reasons for this latest delay in this matter that has taken almost six years to get to this point. 

Should the NPA fail to file their affidavit, we will approach the courts for a contempt of court order against the them.

Statement issued by James Selfe MP, Chairperson of the DA's Federal Executive, March 30 2015

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