ANC STATEMENT ON DA REMARKS ON SPY TAPES

9 SEPTEMBER 2014

The African National Congress notes the latest fishing expedition being undertaken by the DA in relation to the so-called spy tapes. The assertions by the DA leader that the recordings of conversations handed over to her last week "provide sufficient evidence" to apply for a review of the decision taken in 2009 to withdraw charges against President Zuma, are a continuation of a long and futile battle of the DA to discredit the ANC and its leadership. We are neither surprised nor worried by the newly founded revelations of the DA on the contents of the recordings. The ANC believes that the then Acting National Director of Public Prosecutions, Advocate Mpshe, was a competent authority who applied his mind to the facts before him, allowing him to reach the decision to withdraw the charges against the ANC President.

The DA's determined agenda to vilify the ANC, its leadership and its practices reaches new lows on a daily basis. To assert that the decision to withdraw the charges against President Zuma is as a result of so-called cadre deployment demonstrates how the DA is prepared to sacrifice reason and logic for political posturing and point scoring. The DA leader even questions whether "to what extent is it legitimate for an investigator and a prosecutor to discuss a joint strategy in the prosecution of a person".

This is in direct contradiction of the statement made by her colleague, Glynnis Breytenbach, that "a really valuable aspect of the Scorpions' operations was that investigators and prosecutors worked together on cases". We advise the DA that this methodology is currently being used by the Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit within the National Prosecuting Authority and has proven to be very effective. With the sole aim of demonising anything that can be related to the ANC, the DA speaks at cross purposes on the criminal justice system and its operations.

Once again, the African National Congress welcomes the release of the tapes that have been used as a red herring by the DA over the last five years. We are quite certain that this matter is being used by the DA to detract from the very important and impressive work being done by the ANC government to create a better life for all our people. In our quest to fundamentally transform society, we will expect detractors such as DA. Our singular hope is that this matter is brought to absolute finality soon so that President Zuma and the ANC government can continue their programme of radically accelerating the pace of change in our country.

Statement issued by Zizi Kodwa, ANC national spokesperson, September 9 2014

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