Johannesburg - President Jacob Zuma had an illustrious political record, but his opponents aligned to his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, tried to thwart his presidential ambitions because they regarded him as “the unacceptable face of Africa”.
So said Zuma’s lawyer, Michael Hulley, in an affidavit he filed on Wednesday opposing the DA’s application to have the dropping of corruption charges against Zuma reviewed.
Hulley says in the affidavit it is “simply hypocritical” of the DA to persist with the application because its continuance would ignore the smear political campaign against him.
“He (Zuma) had a very distinguishable record in the service of the ANC. He was, however, regarded by many as the unacceptable face of Africa, and by 2002, the Mbeki faction was determined that Zuma should not become the president of the ANC or of the country,” Hulley says.
Hulley’s papers were filed in the High Court in Pretoria late on Wednesday, which was the deadline for Zuma to respond.
Earlier this year, the DA filed its court papers after it successfully won a court bid to access the “spy tapes” late last year. The tapes include the internal memorandums, minutes of meetings and records of the phone conversation between the former head of the defunct Scorpions, Leonard McCarthy, and the National Prosecuting Authority’s former head, Bulelani Ngcuka.
Then-acting NPA boss Mokotedi Mpshe cited the recordings as the reason to drop more than 700 charges of corruption, fraud and money racketeering against Zuma, citing a political conspiracy.
Hulley states in the papers that the DA’s application was “defective and meritless”.
This, he says, was because the official opposition party had assumed in its papers that the decision to drop the charges against Zuma was based solely on the spy tapes.
Hulley says the decision was based on Zuma’s representations to the NPA. He argues that it was a political conspiracy to besmirch him that had led to the dropping of the charges.
“The tapes must be considered in their contexts and their place in the representations,” Hulley says, citing the so-called Browse Mole report, delays in his prosecution, and the media leaks as among the “overwhelming factors supporting the Mpshe decision”.
Singling out McCarthy as the “driver of the Zuma prosecution”, Hulley says the timing of the decision to press charges against Zuma was to discredit and stigmatise him and influence the outcome of the Polokwane conference.
“It is common cause that he (McCarthy) was an Mbeki supporter and anti-Zuma, certainly as a political roleplayer… The cynical use of prosecutorial powers to engineer political results is clearly deeply offensive.”
Hulley further accuses the DA of trivialising McCarthy’s role in the political conspiracy against Zuma.
“His (McCarthy’s) trivial interference was designed to detract from Zuma’s presidential prospects, that the ANC would have had Mbeki as a leader of the ANC and, most likely, a puppet president of the RSA installed.”
Hulley cites Zuma’s age as a motivating factor in opposing the application.
“He has been subjected to a gruelling trial on a rape charge. It is a very daunting experience to be accused of a serious charge. (Zuma) has no desire to be accused of a serious crime.
“He has no desire to be subjected to the obvious lengthy trials and tribulations of an accused facing corruption charges. Especially where the trials promise to be lengthy, arduous and redolent with impugnments of his conduct and honesty.
“I cannot think of anyone who would wish that of himself. Zuma is 73 years old.”