South Africa’s opposition Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille says the battle to rethink the decision to withdraw criminal charges against President Jacob Zuma has just started.
She was speaking after being handed tapes used by prosecutors to justify dropping the charges before Zuma’s election five years ago.
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille says the so called spy tapes and transcriptions will be used to look again at the withdrawal of more than 700 counts of fraud, corruption and racketeering against Zuma in 2009.
Zuma’s welcomed the release of the tapes at the High Court in Pretoria yesterday (Thursday) although Zille recalls that the presidency blocked this for five years through six court cases.
She says the contents of the tapes will be measured against the record of the National Prosecuting Authority to drop charges against Zuma.
The DA’s concerned that the case against Zuma may have been determined by political considerations and not legal ones.
If this proves to be so, it will be a profound case of the independence of state institutions being undermined.
The handover of the spy tapes was delayed by an hour as deputy judge president Aubrey Ledwaba checked that the Supreme Court of Appeal judgment was followed.