|
Expert: Zuma tapes could go public in court |
| Publication |
News24 |
| Date | 2012-04-13 |
| Reporter | Sapa |
| Web Link | www.news24.com |
Bloemfontein - The so-called spy tapes that featured in a decision to
drop criminal charges against President
Jacob Zuma in 2009 might be aired publicly if they are presented in court, a
legal expert said on Friday.
Northwest University law professor Tom Coetzee said if the Democratic Alliance
decided to file a review application of the National Prosecuting Authority’s
decision to drop corruption charges against Zuma, the content of the tapes might
be part of its submission.
"The party still needs to find enough grounds to bring a review from the
documents to be handed to them by the NPA," he said.
On Thursday, the NPA announced that it would hand the DA a record of its
decision not to prosecute Zuma.
NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga said it would not challenge a Supreme Court of
Appeal (SCA) judgment in the Constitutional Court, but would follow the process
set out in the SCA judgment.
Confidentiality agreements
The SCA upheld the DA’s attempt to gain access to the records and held that
this record should consist of the documents and material relevant to the review.
These included papers which were before the then acting National Director of
Public Prosecutions
Mokotedi Mpshe when he made his decision.
The court decided that the record should exclude written representations made on
behalf of Zuma and any consequent memoranda or reports prepared in response, or
oral representations, if their production would breach confidentiality
agreements.
Coetzee said nothing could stop the DA from releasing the contents of the tapes
to the media, but that this would not help any application it made for review.
He said a review court, which would be a High Court, could decide after hearing
the matter that no irregularities occurred with the NPA’s decision or the other
way around.
If a court found against a review, the DA would be able to take the decision on
appeal.
If the court found there were irregularities in the NPA’s 2009 decision, it
would again be up to the NPA to decide whether to prosecute Zuma.
Never answered
Coetzee said if the tapes were to be part of the DA’s documents in the
review application, filed in court, they would become public knowledge.
"It would become part of a public document."
Constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos, in his blog Constitutionally Speaking,
wrote that the documents, if made public, could be embarrassing to Zuma and
former president
Thabo Mbeki.
He said it could remind South Africans that there was still a strong prima facie
case of corruption against Zuma, a case which he had never answered despite
claims at the time that he wanted to clear his name.
De Vos said it could be that the documents would also embarrass Mbeki and others
who might have plotted against Zuma.
This was because reasons given for the dropping of the charges against Zuma
centred on the alleged abuse of the process of manipulation inside the NPA on
the timing of charges against Zuma.
On Friday, DA spokesperson
James Selfe said the party expected the documents any time soon after the
NPA asked for an extension on Thursday to finish the transcripts.
Related Links
With acknowledgements to Sapa and News24.
Neither Zuma nor Mbeki are going to be embarrassed
much about this as they have the ethics of bottom dwellers - which is low.
Mbeki might get a bit cross, but he's more likely to have forgotten what this
was about. Maybe an encrypted memo from Jean-Paul Perrier might jog him from
his current recreational pharmaceutical.
Zuma might issue one of his specialty nonplussed smiles and ask one of his
advisors what's going on and for a viagra as it's that time again.
Kemp J. Kemp retreats to his counting house to count out his money.
I retreat to my counting house to count out my money to give to Kemp J. Kemp.
The DA smile all the way.
I also smile because the alternatives are few and it's too early in the morning
for a recreational pharmaceutical.
.
Mokotedi Mpshe removes an ostrich egg from his chin before climbing onto his
Blackberry to make an appointment to see Zuma's strategic advisors to see how
they can work this one out.
Leonard McCarthy smiles in New York while checks his US Dollar account balance
online. The Rand one is also not doing badly either.
Bulelani Ngcuka doesn't know whether to smile or weep.
Hopefully Billy Downer and Johan du Plooy get out the hoover and start vacuuming
the dust off a large volume of document crates.
Neither smile because they are trained and instructed never to give anything
away by means of facial expressions in public.
Anton Steynberg checks the outstanding duration of his sabbatical and ponders
the upsides and downsides of surfing a tsunami or convicting a plethora of
continental genocidists.
That's living in Africa.