Jean-Jacques Cornish

Deadline for decision whether to prosecute Jacob Zuma

National Prosecuting Authority boss Shaun Abrahams has until today  to decide whether to appeal or to proceed with prosecuting Jacob Zuma on 783 charges of fraud, corruption and racketeering.

The opposition Democratic Alliance  has warned it’ll fight any attempt at shielding the president from having his day in court.

 

Last month, the High Court in Pretoria ruled the National Prosecuting Authority was wrong seven years ago to drop criminal charges against President Jacob Zuma.

 

The ruling was a victory for the official opposition, which asked the court to review the  decision by Abrhamas’ predecessor to withdraw the charges against Zuma.

The High Court found that Mokotedi  Mpshe breached a cardinal legal rule by not continuing with prosecuting with the charges that stem from an arms procurement deal in 1999.

Judge Aubrey Ledwaba found that the decision taken to drop corruption charges against Zuma was irrational.

He further ruled that the matter needed to be reviewed.

The National Prosecuting spokesperson Luvuyo Mfaku says they’ve been studying the decision.

Their head Shaun Abrahams will address the nation with the final decision.

Head of the Democratic Alliance Federal Executive, James Selfe says the judgment was a unanimous decision of a full bench. It’s difficult to conceive that those judges would believe that a different court would come to another conclusion.

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Jean-Jacques Cornish is a journalist and broadcaster who has been involved in the media all his adult life.

Starting as a reporter on his hometown newspaper, he moved briefly to then Rhodesia before returning to South Africa to become a parliamentary correspondent with the South African Press Association. He was sent to London as Sapa’s London editor and also served as special correspondent to the United Nations. He joined the then Argus group in London as political correspondent.

Returning to South Africa after 12 years abroad, he was assistant editor on the Pretoria News for a decade before becoming editor of the Star and SA Times for five years.

Since 1999 he’s been an independent journalist writing and broadcasting – mainly about Africa – for Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape
Talk, Radio France International, PressTV, Radio Live New Zealand, Business Day, Mail & Guardian, the BBC, Agence France Press,
Business in Africa, Leadership, India Today, the South African Institute for International Affairs and the Institute for Security Studies.

He has hosted current affairs talk shows on Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape Talk. He appears as an African affairs pundit on SABC Africa and CNBC Africa.
He lectured in contemporary studies to journalism students at the Tshwane University of Technology and the University of Pretoria.

He speaks on African affairs to corporate and other audiences.
He has been officially invited as a journalist to more than 30 countries. He was the winner of the 2007 SADC award for radio journalism.

He’s been a member of the EISA team observing elections in Somaliland, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Egypt and Tunsiai.

In October 2009 he headed a group of 39 African journalists to the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Peoples’ Republic of China.

In January 2010 he joined a rescue and paramedical team to earthquake struck Haiti.

He is immediate past president of the Alliance Francaise of Pretoria.

Jean-Jacques is a director of Giant Media. The company was given access to Nelson Mandela in his retirement years until 2009.
He is co-producer of the hour-long documentary Mandela at 90 that was broadcast on BBC in January 2009.