"All indications are that the NDPP has not taken a decision based in law, but that it has buckled to political pressure. Two weeks before the election, it now portrays Jacob Zuma as a wronged victim in a show trial."
DA Leader Helen Zille comments on the decision by the National Prosecuting Authority to drop over 700 charges against Jacob Zuma. The reasons given by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for dropping the charges against Mr Jacob Zuma do not hold water, said DA leader Helen Zille on Monday.
All indications are that the NDPP has not taken a decision based in law, but that it has buckled to political pressure. Evidence presented by the NDPP today does not change the fact that there is a strong case against Zuma.
That case must go to court. Firstly, the evidence presented by the NDPP, which amounts to selective quotations from transcripts of bugged telephone conversations between the former head of the Scorpions, Leonard McCarthy, and the former head of the NPA, Bulelani Ngcuka, does not affect the substantive merits of the case against Zuma. It merely points to political manipulation in the timing of the NPAs decision to re-charge Zuma. By the NPAs own admission today, it does not detract from the case itself, she said.
If the individuals whose telephone calls were recorded are guilty of criminal conduct they must be charged too.
Zille said that whether or not individuals in the NPA colluded with powerful political figures in respect of the Zuma prosecution does not change the fact that Zuma has a case to answer.
