President Jacob Zuma this week dodged another arms deal missile.

Johannesburg - President Jacob Zuma this week dodged another  arms deal missile.

North Gauteng High Court Judge Natvarlal Ranchod this week ruled that neither the  Democratic Alliance (DA) nor Cape Town businessman  Richard Young had the locus standi, or legal right, to challenge the decision by prosecutors to let Zuma off the hook.

Young and the DA wanted the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to review its decision to abandon the Zuma case. He escaped prosecution when former NPA boss Mokotedi Mpshe ruled Zuma could not be prosecuted because tapped phone conversations obtained by his  lawyers showed the NPA was plotting against him.

The tapes show that an NPA official was planning when it would be most politically embarrassing for Zuma to be charged.

The DA and Young wanted access to these and other documents that scared off the NPA.

In his 30-page judgment Ranchod says: “South Africa does not, in principle, follow a system of compulsory prosecution.

The NPA has the discretion whether or not to institute and conduct criminal proceedings or  to continue them.

It is not compelled to institute criminal proceedings in respect of  matters brought to its attention irrespective of their merits or to continue criminal proceedings  instituted to their finality.

The NPA sometimes declines to prosecute in what it considers to be minor matters because of limited resources and  to prioritise other matters.”

He ruled that although Young was a complainant in the case that led to the prosecution and jailing of Schabir Shaik and although  Zuma’s prosecution flowed from his complaint, Young did not have a legal right to know why Zuma had escaped prosecution.

With acknowledgements to Paul Kirk and The Citizen.

Comments

Zuma let off again and again. When will justice prevail with this man?

How absolutely preposterous that the very taxpayers, who footed Zuma's legal fees of millions of rands, are not allowed to know why the strong case of corruption allegations against Zuma, as admitted by the NPA, were withdrawn. Very conveniently the two alleged conspirators were never charged so that the real truth could have been revealed. Why do we keep claiming that South Africa is democratic? One day the real truth will be revealed. As was the arms deal. Dishonest politicians can hide as much as they like but the real truth will come out in the history of South Africa.

by Frank Hartry on 26 Feb 2011, 09:27

Legal right

"Young did not have a legal right to know why Zuma had escaped prosecution." As South Africans we ALL have a legal right to know why our president wasn't prosecuted. Why the secrecy? I thought the ANC were all about transparency?

by Kells on 26 Feb 2011, 15:51

The Arms Deal not only spawned the slippery slope of corruption and anarchy in our beloved country, but also the other side of the same coin - the demise of the integrity and credibility of the judiciary and independent jurisprudence.