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.
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