PUBLIC'S INTERESTS MUST BE PUT BEFORE ZUMA'S AND MBEKI'S

THE TIMES NEWSPAPER
JOHANNESBURG, SA
The Editor,
Mar 31, 2009

"This appears to be a split between the worlds of criminal justice and of politics."

EDITORIAL:
JACOB Zuma’s trial remained in the balance last night. The National Prosecuting Authority was still mulling over whether to drop the charges at the time of going to press.

If the many leaks from the Zuma camp are to be believed, then it seems that the charges will be dropped and Zuma will be free to continue a most spectacular comeback.

Less certain are the grounds on which this decision is likely to be based.

Whispers from the NPA meeting suggest that the Zuma prosecution team, led by advocate Billy Downer, is in favour of continuing with the case, whereas the NPA’s top administrators want the trial aborted.

This appears to be a divide between the world of criminal justice and that of politics.

The prosecutors think they have a case they can win.

The administrators think that the political argument that there has been some kind of “interference” — led by former president Thabo Mbeki, by most accounts — should trump the question of whether the law has been broken by Zuma.

While the interests of Zuma, Mbeki et al, and of the NPA are being weighed, there is one larger interest missing. What outcome would best serve the people of South Africa, the voters who will return a government on April 22?

By circumventing the courts, the question of Zuma’s guilt or innocence will remain untested.

The incontrovertible fact, established in the trial of Schabir Shaik, is that Zuma received vast amounts of money from his financial adviser that he shouldn’t have.

And the stench of corruption continues to dog the arms deal.

The obvious solution that ought to have been implemented a long time ago is a proper judicial commission of inquiry into the arms deal where allegations could be aired and responded to in the public domain.