President Jacob Zuma
Picture: Martin Rhodes
 

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma was on Friday granted leave to appeal the judgment of the North Gauteng High Court passed last month, which had ordered the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to hand over the reduced record of decision, including the spy tapes, to the Democratic Alliance (DA).

The DA sought the record of decision that former acting national director of public prosecutions Mokotedi Mpshe used to inform his decision to drop charges of corruption against Mr Zuma in April 2009, so it can launch a court review of that decision.

The judgment means the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) will once again be asked to make a ruling on which parts of the record the prosecuting authority should furnish the DA with.

When the DA went to court in May 2009 to ask it to review or set aside Mr Mpshe’s decision, the NPA raised a preliminary point concerning the DA’s lack of standing to review the decision.

The high court ruled the DA had no standing.

On appeal, the SCA held in March last year that the DA had standing to bring the application to review Mr Mpshe’s decision, and ordered the NPA to produce the record of decision Mr Mpshe had relied on.

The SCA gave the NPA 14 days to produce all documents, recordings, materials and evidence that led to the withdrawal of criminal charges against Mr Zuma.

The DA went to the North Gauteng High Court in September last year to compel former acting NPA head Nomgcobo Jiba to deliver the reduced record, including the recordings, after the NPA failed to produce the recordings within 14 days.

Judge Rammaka Mathopo ordered last month that the record to be given to the DA must include any internal memoranda, reports or minutes of meetings dealing with the contents of the recordings or the transcript itself, insofar as these documents did not breach the confidentiality of Mr Zuma’s written or oral representations to the NPA to drop the charges.

Mr Zuma applied two weeks ago to appeal Judge Mathopo’s judgment.

When granting leave to appeal the Supreme Court of Appeal on Friday, Judge Mathopo said he was persuaded that there was the possibility that another court might come to a different conclusion. This was because of different interpretations of the 2012 SCA order contended for by the DA and Mr Zuma.

Mr Zuma’s advocate, Kemp J Kemp SC, earlier told the court that Mr Zuma had the right to protect the confidentiality of his representations to Mr Mpshe.

However, the DA said Mr Zuma now wanted the court to change the wording of the SCA order.

The DA argued Mr Mpshe obtained the recordings he relied upon to drop the charges against Mr Zuma from the National Intelligence Agency, and said the recordings he obtained were never part of representations made by Mr Zuma to the NPA.

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• Zuma’s ‘spy tapes’ appeal unlikely to hold water, says DA

• Zuma unlikely to win ‘spy tapes’ case on appeal, says expert

• Spying on political foes is an abuse of resources

With acknowledgement to Ernest Mabuza and Business Day.

This judge clearly does not want to completely limit his career.