African National Congress, Durban Region

29 August 2008

http://www.friendsofjz.co.za/documents.asp?orderBy=DESC&SortBy=DateCreated

Realising that it is in the interest of our country that all citizens be treated equally before the law;

Realising further that it is undesirable that the State organs should be used to advance the political battles of any individual(s);

And realising further that the arms deal investigations have not been subjected to a thorough judicial inquiry and that unless it has so been subjected it shall always be unjust to target certain individuals and smear them with selective incriminating aspects of the arms deal;

And

Noting that the President of the African National Congress, Comrade Jacob Zuma has not been treated equally before the law in the arms deal saga;

And noting further that Comrade Jacob Zuma was tried and convicted in his absence in the case of the State v Shabir Shaik;

And noting further that Comrade Jacob Zuma has been tried and convicted in the public opinion by the media even before the formal charges could be put to him. In this respect having no doubt that such prosecution by the media of Comrade Jacob Zuma arose out of the "off the record" briefing of journalists by Bulelani Ngcuka where he galvanised the meadia to help him persecute Comrade Jacob Zuma;

And noting further that the then Minister of Justice Mr Penuel Maduna and Bulelani Ngcuka convicted Comrade Jacob Zuma in the public opinion by declaring that there is "a prima facie but not winnable case" against Comrade Jacob Zuma;


WE THEREFORE BELIEVE AND DECLARE THAT:

A.      COMRADE JACOB ZUMA SHALL NOT RECEIVE A FAIR TRIAL.

WE DEMAND THEREFORE THAT


B.      THE CHARGES CURRENTLY PENDING AGAINST COMRADE JACOB ZUMA BE WITHDRAWN AND BE DROPPED PERMANENTLY.

 THE REASONS WHY WE SAY SO ARE AS FOLLOWS:

THE SCORPIONS ARE BEING USED AS POLITICAL TOOLS TO PROSECUTE COMRADE JACOB ZUMA BECAUSE :

1.      The Scorpions have investigated Comrade Jacob Zuma for more than 7 (Seven) years without formulating charges against him;

2.      The Scorpions have leaked information forming part of the investigation to the public with the sole aim of destroying the public image  of Cde Jacob Zuma and tarnish his political standing;

3.      The Scorpions falsely told Judge Msimang in July 2006 that they would be ready by February 2008 to charge Cde Jacob Zuma and they failed to do so;

4.       Mokotedi Mpshe, the Acting Director of Public Prosecutions, announced in the media that they could only charge Cde Jacob Zuma on or about April 2008 after they had charged Commissioner Selebi, yet as soon as Cde Jacob Zuma won the elections in Polokwane he was charged within a period of two weeks of his win and long before Selebi could be charged;

5.      The Scorpions made sure are that Cde Jacob Zuma was served with the charges when he was entertaining multitudes of poor people during the festive seasons. The Scorpions made sure that the charges were served in a manner that was intended to humiliate Comrade Zuma and dampen the spirit of the occasion;

6.      The Scorpions are now peddling propaganda that Cde Zuma is delaying that trial when he is pursuing his constitutional remedies and pretend that they have been ever ready to proceed yet there is a court judgement of September 2006 where Judge Msimang struck the case off the roll because the Scorpions were not ready;

7.      Most importantly the Scorpions are now insisting that the date of trial coincides with the elections, clearly in pursuit of a political agenda to try and exclude Cde Zuma from playing a meaningful role in the elections and further to ensure his Presidency of the country is prevented;

8.      The Scorpions have gone to the extent of manufacturing that Cde Zuma is being assisted by foreign countries to overthrow Cde Thabo Mbeki as president of the country. The discredited Browse Mole report is testimony to the political farce the Scorpions are engaged in;

9.      The Scorpions are on record as having conspired to ensure that Cde Zuma did not win in Polokwane so that their self interest of being not dissolved could be extended.

NO COURT WILL GIVE COMRADE JACOB ZUMA A FAIR TRIAL

1.      The Scorpions will mislead the Courts and will not present the case in a balanced way so that the courts will be misled to arrive at an unfair result because the Scorpions are being politically manipulated. They have a history of doing so as they did it before Judge Msimang. In that case they said that there had been an agreement with the defence on a certain aspect of the postponement but when the defence denied this they somersaulted and they said they assumed the defence had agreed. This was clearly typical of the Scorpions rotten agenda which they will repeat if they are allowed to continue with the case;

2.      The case of Cde Zuma has been commented upon so extensively, wrongly and in a skewed fashion that in our view no Court will try Cde Jacob Zuma without any preconceived ideas;

3.      The second highest court, namely the Supreme Court of Appeal is a clear example of the dangers inherent in the continued trial of Cde Zuma when it erred and said the trial judge had said there was a "generally corrupt relationship" between Cde Zuma and Cde Shabir Shaik whereas the trial judge had never said such. It is clear that the judges were influenced by the falsity of the media statements rather than the documents and arguments before them;

4.      A Durban judge said that Cde Zuma had said he wanted his day in Court whereas none of the documents that were before him contained that allegation. Clearly he must have picked that up in corridor gossip or in the media and transposed it into the court of law, a clear case of the real danger of a potential legal pollution of the judges' minds in the future trial;

5.       In the recent Constitutional Court judgement the court said that there was a real risk that if the attorney for  Cde Zuma were to inform Cde Zuma that the Scorpions wanted certain documents, Cde Zuma would uplift and destroy those  documents. This is a clear prejudgment of the character of Cde Zuma as being dishonest even before he goes on trial, let alone appealing to that constitutional Court. It is unthinkable that in the light of this unwarranted statement by the Constitutional Court, Cde Zuma will be viewed as an honest citizen of the country, instead he will be presumed dishonest unless he proves otherwise, a gross distortion of our constitutional tenets.

3       .   THE DEMAND TO REVISIT THE CASE OF                          PHILLIP POWELL

        The Scorpions arbitrarily and with great mischief decided to absolve Phillip Powell who had stock piled lethal weapons.

        We believe that our people who are being moved down especially in hostels are victims of the beneficiaries of weapons that were hidden by Powell.

        We demand that the Scorpions bring back Powell to point out more weapons as we believe that not enough investigation was conducted against him.
        
        Submitted by the African National Congress, Durban Region on the 29th August 2008.


1.       SIGNED:________________________________
        For and on behalf of ANC Durban Region

2.      Received and signed for by

        Signature :_____________________________  
        Name :________________________________
        On behalf of the Scorpions
 

With acknowledgements to the ANC.