JUSTICE SYSTEM, NOT POLITICIANS, MUST DECIDE

By The Editor,
The Times Newspaper Publisher
JOHANNESBURG
Mar 19, 2009

The Zuma case has been politicised by his ingenious spin doctors
EDITORIAL: PRESSURE is mounting on the National Prosecuting Authority to stop its planned prosecution of Jacob Zuma on charges of corruption and fraud.

Zuma is scheduled to appear on the charges in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg in August.

Yesterday, sources close to Zuma leaked the “news” that the NPA was to drop the charges and the story made banner headlines in some daily newspapers.

This follows months of intense pressure on NPA head, Mokotedi Mpshe, by high-profile politicians wanting Zuma to be free of charges before he assumes the presidency after the April general election.

To date the NPA has held firm, but the effects of relentless political pressure are very hard to resist, especially when your investigative arm, the Scorpions, has been closed down and a new head of prosecutions might soon be appointed.

What is clear is that the Zuma case has been very effectively politicised by an ingenious spin-doctoring operation.

They have planted stories, leaked brilliantly and turned Zuma into the darling of some influential people who see in him their ticket to professional ascension.

Meanwhile the prosecution — once accused by Zuma of using the media to blacken his name — has fallen silent as it has been pruned back.

The decision about whether charges should be brought against Zuma needs to be removed from the realm of politics and returned to its rightful place in the criminal justice system.

The politicisation of this issue will rob the ultimate decision of some of its legitimacy.

If charges are dropped, it will be seen as the outcome of political gerrymandering.

If they are not, Zuma’s allies will claim that they are the victims of political persecution.

South Africa cannot afford the politicisation of the criminal justice system. The consequences will be more crime.