Pretoria - The high court in Pretoria has dismissed the NPA's leave to appeal its judgment that the decision to drop charges against President Jacob Zuma was irrational.
A full bench of the high court ruled on Friday that the appeal did not have much prospects of success at the Supreme Court of Appeal.
“The applicants have raised irrelevant and non-meritorious factors to support their case.
“We came to the conclusion that the application does not have reasonable prospects of success,” Judge Aubrey Ledwaba said.
The dismissal of the NPA's application is a blow to the authority but it may still petition the SCA.
DA federal chairman James Selfe said the ruling is what they expected the NPA to do.
“We believe it is in the interest of justice for this trial to continue and for Jacob Zuma to face the 783 charges that were put against him.
“I very much doubt that the SCA will come to a different conclusion if they appeal there, which will clear the way for the trial to start,” said Selfe.
He added that the charges should be immediately reinstated.
“The advice of our counsel is that the charges are reinstated.
“The original judgment was very clear on that matter that he should now face the charges that he was originally charged with,” said Selfe.
The case around the so-called “spy tapes” was brought by the Democratic Alliance which asked the court to review the decision to drop 783 charges of fraud, corruption and racketeering against Zuma back in 2009.
On April 29 this year the high court in Pretoria set aside the decision by former acting national director of public prosecutions Mokotedi Mpshe, to withdraw the raft of charges against Zuma.
The court found that the decision taken by Mpshe to drop the corruption charges against Zuma in 2009 was irrational and thus set it aside.