A South African judge ruled yesterday that prosecutors were wrong to charge African National Congress (ANC) President Jacob Zuma with corruption, effectively clearing the way for the 66-year-old former freedom fighter to become the country’s next president.
Judge Chris Nicholson’s ruling included biting criticism of prosecutors and of political leaders all the way up to South African President Thabo Mbeki, saying there was reason to believe the decision to charge Zuma was politically motivated.
Nicholson upheld Zuma’s complaints that he should have been consulted before the National Prosecuting Authority decided to resurrect corruption charges against him last year in connection with a huge arms scandal that has dogged South Africa for the past decade.
As head of the ruling ANC party, Zuma is likely to run for president next year when Mbeki’s second and last term ends. The ANC’s political dominance all but assures its leader of victory in the presidential race.
The decision to “prosecute the applicant is invalid and is set aside,” the High Court judge said, concluding a two-hour reading of his ruling.
Zuma’s supporters in a court room packed with top ANC officials broke into cheers in a scene broadcast on national television. A jubilant Zuma embraced his lawyer.
Nicholson cautioned that his ruling did not touch on guilt or innocence and said prosecutors could file charges again once they had met the requirement of consulting with Zuma.
The National Prosecuting Authority, though, will come under huge pressure not to file charges again. Parliament is pushing through legislation to scrap its elite investigating unit, the Scorpions, in response to ANC anger over what its members see as the Scorpions’ persecution of Zuma. Even some business leaders had suggested that the charges against Zuma should be dropped in the interests of future political stability in Africa’s economic powerhouse.
Tensions had mounted in recent weeks, with Zuma supporters threatening to make South Africa ungovernable if his trial went ahead. Influential ANC Youth League leaders have repeatedly said they are prepared to kill and die for Zuma.
Zuma is hugely popular among poor South Africans who feel alienated by Mbeki’s intellectual aloofness and are tired of waiting for their living conditions to improve 14 years after the end of apartheid.
Even though Mbeki is barred by the Constitution from running again for the nation’s presidency, he ran against Zuma for the party leadership, apparently trying to exercise control over who would succeed him.
Mbeki’s spokesman, Mukoni Ratshitanga, said he could not immediately comment on the Zuma judgment because of its length.
“One would have to look at the judgment before any comments are made, if comments are necessary,” Ratshitanga said.
In the ruling, the judge dealt at length about concerns raised by Zuma that the charges were brought to besmirch him as he challenged Mbeki for the ANC presidency.
“I’m not convinced that the applicant was incorrect in averring political meddling in his prosecution,” Nicholson said.
Nicholson also expressed concern that prosecutors were influenced by members of Mbeki’s Cabinet and said it was “improbable” the ministers acted without Mbeki’s knowledge and agreement.
The entire episode appears to have formed part of “some great political contest or game,” Nicholson said.
“There is a ring of the works of Kafka in this,” he added.
Zuma was initially charged in 2005, but that case was dismissed on a technicality in 2006. He was recharged last December, just days after being elected ANC president, with racketeering, corruption, money laundering and fraud related to the multibillion rand government arms deal in the late 1990s.
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
RSS