DA to picket outside court as Zuma seeks leave to appeal NPA ruling
The Democratic Alliance said it would picket outside the North Gauteng High Court on Friday as President Jacob Zuma and the National Prosecuting Authority apply for leave to appeal the court’s decision in April that he must face hundreds of criminal charges withdrawn in 2009.
James Selfe, the chairman of the DA’s federal executive, said the party would be protesting as the bid to appeal was an “abuse of legal process and taxpayers’ money”.
The picket would be addressed by the party’s Gauteng leader John Moodley and its national spokeswoman Phumzile van Damme.
The DA succeeded in a lengthy legal battle to get the court to overturn the 2009 decision to scrap 783 charges stemming from the multi-billion rand arms deal signed a decade earlier.
The North Gauteng High Court ruled that the NPA’s decision seven years ago to drop the fraud‚ corruption and racketeering charges against Zuma was irrational. The charges were withdrawn shortly before the national elections that brought Zuma to power and the court said that the then acting head of the prosecuting authority, Mokotedi Mpshe, had found himself under political pressure.
“The National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Adv Shaun Abrahams, is duty-bound to proceed with the prosecution against President Jacob Zuma but both government respondents seem hell-bent on using more taxpayer’s money to frustrate the proper ventilation and conclusion of this matter once and for all,” Selfe said.
The court is expected to hear argument on Friday and it is not clear when it would decide whether to allow an appeal. - ANA