Karima Brown
5 August 2008
Johannesburg — THE African National Congress (ANC) and its allies lambasted the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the judiciary outside the Pietermaritzburg High Court yesterday as party president Jacob Zuma asked the court to scrap his corruption case.
While Zuma's legal team did battle inside the court, his backers went on the attack by criticising the case, putting the party on a collision course with the judiciary.
Several ANC top brass who were at the court in solidarity with Zuma criticised the manner in which they say he has been treated by the NPA and some within the judiciary.
Judging by comments made outside the court, tensions between the ANC, its allies - the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) - and the judiciary are set to increase.
Zuma, addressing supporters after the court proceedings adjourned , said he would tell them today why he had brought the application to have the case against him scrapped. He spoke mostly in Zulu.
"I want to explain something. I am not afraid of anything. I was willing to die for this democracy and for justice, that is why I respect it today, so I expect those in it (the judiciary) to respect my rights. But let me not go on, because I don't want to be accused of threatening them," he said.
Zuma promised that he would reveal all, saying he would say a "few words" once the matter had been dealt with in court and promised that South Africans would "get it from me" instead of those who "love telling stories but who don't know anything".
SACP boss Blade Nzimande was less diplomatic and lambasted last week's ruling by the Constitutional Court which criticised Zuma's extensive use of the courts to fight over procedural matters in his corruption trial.
"We shall not be intimidated by anyone, we have rights, the president (Zuma) is entitled to go to court to defend those rights," Nzimande said.
While not naming Chief Justice Pius Langa, it was clear Nzimande was referring to Langa's ruling last Thursday in which he berated pre-trial litigation efforts by Zuma's legal team, which have delayed the corruption case going to trial.
"Justice does not start when one appears before a judge. It starts with how one is investigated and whether one's rights have been abused," Nzimande said.
ANC spokeswoman Jessie Duarte told reporters that Zuma had been subjected to malicious prosecution by the NPA and that the ANC, while respecting the judiciary, had serious reservations about whether Zuma would get a fair trial.
"The ANC president has been persecuted by the media and tried in the court of public opinion for well over seven years. We want the charges dropped. In 2006 they were chucked out of this very court. Now the NPA has come (up) with new charges, one which includes issues of taxation. Yet the South African Revenue Service is not even the complainant. The other charge relates to racketeering, which involves Jacob Zuma's daughter having a R10 car wash. Let's face it, the NPA has tried to use public opinion against Jacob Zuma," Duarte said.
Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said the NPA had recruited black journalists to launch a "media trial" against Zuma. "Some in the NPA used to drop off information at media houses about the investigation into the ANC president," he said.
Duarte dismissed the suggestion that the ANC would consider changing the constitution to exempt Zuma from prosecution once he becomes president of the country.
Responding to questions about whether the party has any plans to amend the law that would allow Zuma to escape prosecution once in public office, she said: "We have not discussed that in the ANC at all."
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I was always under the impression(perhaps naievly)that the highest court in the land was to protect the man in the street from the excesses of government,it seems not, this was the original plan anyway.
Zuma should be given fear trial.Jugdes should stop interferingn into his private affairs. The NPA are trying to pull him down with what they have as evidence. please let the NPA be impatial in Zumas trail that absolutely will bring peace to souhtfricans. All charges should be scrap immediately.