South Africa’s state prosecutor said on Monday he would appeal against a High Court ruling which could lead to 783 corruption charges being reinstated against President Jacob Zuma. It will have to get the court to agree to the appeal, which may not be easy.
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A South African High Court judge late last month, described as ‘irrational, ‘ the public prosecutor’s decision to drop the corruption charges against President Jacob Zuma. This is an important matter of principle which affects all prosecutions, it is so important.
Insisting that his decision to appeal was a professional one, he said: “No decision will please all of the people”.
This included that there was a transgression of the separation of powers and that NPA processes were abused for political reasons.
The charges were dropped in 2009 when South Africa’s chief prosecutor at the time, Mokotedi Mpshe, said that phone-tap evidence popularly referred to in South Africa as “Spy Tapes, ” suggested political interference in the investigation.
Abrahams railed against suggestions that the NPA was reluctant to prosecute Zuma.
The South Gauteng High Court said, “Having regard to the conspectus of evidence before us we find that Mr Mpshe found himself under pressure and he chose to discontinue the prosecution of Mr Zuma and consequently made an irrational decision”.
“Considering the situation in which he found himself, Mr Mpshe ignored the importance of the oath of office which commanded him to act independently and without fear and favour”. Zuma has repeatedly denied allegations of graft.
Zuma, 74, will have completed two terms in 2019 and is not eligible to run for president again, but the ANC could replace him ahead of the next general election.
But National Director of Public Prosecutions Shaun Abrahams said that prosecutors should be able to exercise discretion over whether an investigation should continue. “I did not have any discussions with the legal team of the president on this matter”.
Abrahams said the application for leave to appeal was being lodged on Monday.
Abrahams said he was aware that “whatever decision I make will no doubt elicit criticism from some quarters”. He said they wanted to first show confidence in the SCA.
“So it was never an issue of attempting to delaying this issue”. That was the truth.
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Abrahams was trying to protect Zuma “at all costs”, the DA said in a statement, questioning the prosecutor’s independence.
