#SpyTapes: ANCYL comes to Zuma’s defence

President Jacob Zuma said apartheid was to blame for the high rate of unemployment in South Africa. File picture: EPA/NIC BOTHMA

President Jacob Zuma said apartheid was to blame for the high rate of unemployment in South Africa. File picture: EPA/NIC BOTHMA

Published Apr 29, 2016

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Port Elizabeth – The African National Congress Youth League in the Eastern Cape defended President Jacob Zuma on Friday and insisted that there were no charges or indictments against him.

This follows the High Court in Pretoria judgment to set aside the 2009 decision of then acting National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Mokotedi Mpshe not to proceed with the prosecution of Zuma on 783 corruption charges brought against him, saying they were “irrational”.

Read: #SpyTapes: Mpshe acted under pressure

Mpshe withdrew the charges on the basis that the so-called “spy tapes” – recordings of phone calls between senior officials in then president Thabo Mbeki’s administration – suggested they manipulated the timing of Zuma’s indictment on fraud, corruption, and racketeering charges for political reasons.

ANCYL provincial spokesperson Ayongezwa Lungisa said it was dishonest for any party to insinuate that Friday’s ruling arbitrated any wrongdoing by Zuma.

Read: ANC downplays #SpyTapes ruling

“As things stand there is no indictment nor charges against President Zuma and that in a democratic South Africa no court of law has ever found President Zuma to have committed any crime. We find joy in that President Zuma has never sought to use his position to evade courts or justice,” said Lungisa.

The ANCYL further called upon the NPA to study the judgment and consider appealing the decision.

“With the view of bringing certainty on jurisdiction to decide prosecution or not and grounds of reviewing such decision as our constitutional democracy is founded on principle of separation of powers and encroachment ought to be avoided by every arm of state.”

Lungisa said the Democratic Alliance was “desperate to subvert the will of an overwhelming majority and would stop at nothing to weaken the ANC”.

The ANCYL would be prepared to constantly dispel “half-truth and lies” aimed at tarnishing the image and credibility of Zuma.

African News Agency

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