ANA Reporter
The DA has filed its answering affidavit with the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in the latest round of the Zuma corruption charges saga, DA federal executive chairman James Selfe said on Sunday.
Zuma is seeking leave to appeal the recent judgment handed down by a full bench of the High Court in Pretoria, which reinstated the 783 fraud, racketeering and corruption charges controversially withdrawn by former National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Mokotedi Mpshe, paving the way for him to become president in 2009.
“The DA argues that there are no reasonable prospects of success nor are there any other compelling reasons why the appeal should be heard. The full bench of the North Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) fully ventilated the issues and they too came to the determination that an appeal to the SCA would be unsuccessful,” Selfe said.
Zuma argued that it was a breach of the separation of powers doctrine for a court to determine whether a prosecution should be discontinued or not, as this prerogative vested with the NPA.
However, the high court judgment stated that it was not ruling on a general principle that a court of law should determine whether a prosecution should be discontinued or not; rather in the circumstances the complaint of an abuse of process should be determined by a court in an open and transparent manner and not behind closed doors and in secret, as was done by then NPA head Mpshe when he withdrew the charges on April 1, 2009.
“We argue that the court was correct on this aspect as advocate Mpshe did not apply his mind to several factors and therefore his decision was irrational.
“President Zuma’s reliance on claims of a political conspiracy is completely irrelevant as advocate Mpshe has already disavowed any reliance on the report (on conspiracy) when he stated that no firm conclusions could be reached from it, therefore this argument put forward by President Zuma falls away,” Selfe said.
“President Zuma has therefore no real prospects of success, nor does he bring any new compelling reasons why the appeal should be heard. The DA believes that this appeal is simply a delaying tactic so that President Zuma avoids having his day in court for as long as possible.
“This shouldn’t be allowed. The DA therefore believes that the NPA should immediately serve President Zuma with an indictment so he may have his day in court as he has always claimed he wanted,” Selfe said. – African News Agency