Cape Town – The Democratic Alliance has threatened legal action to ensure that President Zuma is held fully accountable for his role in the Nkandla corruption scandal.
The DA’s legal team has written to National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Shaun Abrahams calling on him to furnish the DA with a decision on whether to prosecute or not to prosecute Zuma by no later than Monday, May 15, DA leader Mmusi Maimane said on Sunday.
If the decision was not forthcoming, the DA would take legal action to ensure that Zuma was held fully accountable for his role in the Nkandla corruption scandal.
“Last week, I instructed our legal to team to engage the NDPP one final time to give them an opportunity to make a decision on whether to prosecute Zuma for his role in the Nkandla corruption scandal. This follows the eight charges I laid against Zuma, in terms of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, in 2014.
“Since laying charges against Zuma, I have asked a series of written parliamentary questions to both the minister of justice and correctional services and the minister of police to ascertain the status of CAS 123/03/2014. For three years I have been given the run-around in my pursuit to ensure that Zuma is held accountable for using the people’s money to build himself a palace,” Maimane said.
The most recent response from Police Minister Fikile Mbalula stated that the investigation “has been concluded”. The minister went on further by saying that “the case docket was handed into the office of the NDPP on 21 August 2015, for a decision on prosecution. The decision by the NDPP is still being awaited”.
“It is clear that the police and NPA [National Prosecuting Authority] have been dragging their feet on this matter, most likely to protect Jacob Zuma, and those who seek to hold him to account risk the real possibility of limiting their careers.
“It is never desirable to approach the courts in matters of this nature, but when there is a failure to prosecute without fear or favour and carry out justice this requires that we escalate the matter to the judiciary,” he said.
Zuma was not above the law. Therefore if there was a case for him to answer he should be given his day in court and serve a jail sentence should he be found guilty.
“Zuma’s time in the Union Buildings has been plagued by irrational, illegal, and unconstitutional conduct of his own making, which he has yet to fully answer for.
“As the DA, we will not stop fighting corruption, in both the private and public sectors, until it is fully eradicated, as all acts of corruption steal from the people, especially the poor,” Maimane said.