Cape Town — Mayor Helen Zille will not be charged for heading an antidrug march in Mitchells Plain following her arrest by police for "knocking on the door" of an alleged drug dealer, as well as another "mystery" charge for marching to Parliament two months earlier.

Advocate Rodney de Kock, director of public prosecutions of the Cape of Good Hope, said yesterday he had declined to prosecute in all cases involving Zille, as well as the arrest of 10 other members of the People's Anti-Drug and Liquor Action Committee (Padlac), for contravening the conditions of a march; attending an illegal gathering opposite the Mitchells Plain police station following the arrest of Imam Maker "for stopping at the door" of an alleged drug dealer; and interfering with the police .

He said there were no reasonable prospects of successful prosecutions.

Zille and the others are scheduled to appear in court on Friday, and De Kock said the charges against them would then be withdrawn formally.

Zille said yesterday that she did not know why she was arrested "in the first place" and had "absolutely no idea" that she faced a second charge for the march on July 18.

Permission for the July 18 march on Parliament was withdrawn hours before it was to have started, but went ahead on legal advice, which indicated that if the marchers remained in groups of 10, it would not be considered "a march".

Zille said it was "quite sinister and not a comedy of errors " that she was arrested in Mitchells Plain and that her arrest followed "the same pattern as elsewhere".

Instead of looking at what the Sunday Times was exposing, the police turned the investigation onto the editor of Sunday Times and tried to find him guilty of a criminal offence, she said.

"Instead of looking at the drug issues I'm exposing, they're trying to turn it into an investigation into me. We exercise our constitutional right in terms of the constitution and not by favour of the police or the government," said Zille.

She would seek legal advice on her next step as she knew she had been wrongfully arrested "from the start".