THE Democratic Alliance (DA) contends that the dropping of more than 700 charges of fraud and corruption against President Jacob Zuma by then acting National Director of Public Prosecutions Mokotedi Mpshe, was born out of irrational political considerations not based in law or due process.
This led the DA to embark on a marathon court challenge about six years ago to have the action, which is known as the "spy tapes", challenged. The hearing of the matter begins in the High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday.
The chairman of the DA’s federal executive, James Selfe, told a media conference on Monday that "consequently, the DA in its heads of argument is appealing to the North Gauteng High Court full bench to have the decision to drop the charges declared invalid, irrational and set aside on that basis, which could lead to the reinstatement of the charges against President Zuma".
"President Zuma has gone to great lengths in order to evade justice — it took more than five years and six court appearances for the ‘spy tapes’ and the ‘record of decision’ eventually to be released to us in September 2014," Mr Selfe said.
He said while the DA had so tirelessly raised funds and carefully budgeted to pay for this protracted legal battle, Mr Zuma and the national prosecuting authority (NPA) had had no such troubles. "The President regards taxpayers’ hard-earned contributions to the fiscus as his own private, legal (and home renovation) fund. He has squandered many millions on a legal team that has a mandate to keep him out of court".
The party’s justice spokeswoman, Glynnis Breytenbach, said that "in doing so, the NPA’s heads of argument make it clear that it is hellbent on advancing President Zuma’s narrative that there was a political conspiracy against President Zuma, which warranted the dropping of the charges, which is largely irrelevant and does not speak to the veracity and merits of the case itself."
She said it was worth noting that Mr Mpshe was now attempting to distance himself from this decision.
"In any event, advocate Mpshe confirms in his supplementary confirmatory affidavit that the case against Mr Zuma was indeed ripe for prosecution and that ‘the decision to prosecute Zuma had been taken, and the prosecution would be instituted as soon as possible because there was no legitimate reason to delay it’ — i.e. no reason related to the prosecution itself," Ms Breytenbach said.
"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," Ms Breytenbach said. "This is inherently irrational, and on that basis the decision should be set aside."
Ms Breytenbach is also facing renewed charges of defeating the ends of justice in a matter in which she was exonerated by an internal disciplinary inquiry while she worked for the NPA as a prosecutor.
She said that it had always been the DA’s contention that the record of decision revealed that:
• Mr 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; and
• 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," Ms Breytenbach said.
"It was not for the NPA, acting at the President’s behest, to simply drop the charges without legal basis."
Jacob Zuma. Picture: EPA/NIC BOTHMA
THE Democratic Alliance (DA) contends that the dropping of more than 700 charges of fraud and corruption against President Jacob Zuma by then acting National Director of Public Prosecutions Mokotedi Mpshe, was born out of irrational political considerations not based in law or due process.
This led the DA to embark on a marathon court challenge about six years ago to have the action, which is known as the "spy tapes", challenged. The hearing of the matter begins in the High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday.
The chairman of the DA’s federal executive, James Selfe, told a media conference on Monday that "consequently, the DA in its heads of argument is appealing to the North Gauteng High Court full bench to have the decision to drop the charges declared invalid, irrational and set aside on that basis, which could lead to the reinstatement of the charges against President Zuma".
"President Zuma has gone to great lengths in order to evade justice — it took more than five years and six court appearances for the ‘spy tapes’ and the ‘record of decision’ eventually to be released to us in September 2014," Mr Selfe said.
He said while the DA had so tirelessly raised funds and carefully budgeted to pay for this protracted legal battle, Mr Zuma and the national prosecuting authority (NPA) had had no such troubles. "The President regards taxpayers’ hard-earned contributions to the fiscus as his own private, legal (and home renovation) fund. He has squandered many millions on a legal team that has a mandate to keep him out of court".
The party’s justice spokeswoman, Glynnis Breytenbach, said that "in doing so, the NPA’s heads of argument make it clear that it is hellbent on advancing President Zuma’s narrative that there was a political conspiracy against President Zuma, which warranted the dropping of the charges, which is largely irrelevant and does not speak to the veracity and merits of the case itself."
She said it was worth noting that Mr Mpshe was now attempting to distance himself from this decision.
"In any event, advocate Mpshe confirms in his supplementary confirmatory affidavit that the case against Mr Zuma was indeed ripe for prosecution and that ‘the decision to prosecute Zuma had been taken, and the prosecution would be instituted as soon as possible because there was no legitimate reason to delay it’ — i.e. no reason related to the prosecution itself," Ms Breytenbach said.
"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," Ms Breytenbach said. "This is inherently irrational, and on that basis the decision should be set aside."
Ms Breytenbach is also facing renewed charges of defeating the ends of justice in a matter in which she was exonerated by an internal disciplinary inquiry while she worked for the NPA as a prosecutor.
She said that it had always been the DA’s contention that the record of decision revealed that:
• Mr 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; and
• 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," Ms Breytenbach said.
"It was not for the NPA, acting at the President’s behest, to simply drop the charges without legal basis."
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