DURBAN, South Africa – Jacob Zuma, the man slated to become South Africa's next leader, declared himself vindicated Tuesday after prosecutors formally withdrew corruption charges just two weeks before the national election.
Zuma said the charges were "political and manipulative," and aimed at destroying his aspirations to become president. His opponents, however, said the move by prosecutors to drop the case was yet another case of political manipulation and called for a judicial review of the decision.
The High Court in Durban on Tuesday formally dropped charges in the eight-year saga, a day after the nation's top prosecutor acknowledged that the case had been tainted by misconduct but insisted that the charges themselves were solid.
Zuma, a 66-year-old former guerrilla fighter and intelligence chief of the governing African National Congress party he now leads, is almost certain to become president after the April 22 election given his party's dominance.
"My conscience is clear," he told a news conference in Durban on Tuesday. "I have not committed any crime against the state or the people of South Africa."
But the failure of a court to ultimately establish Zuma's innocence or guilt provoked protest Tuesday.
"It may have spared Zuma a trial, but it has damned him and the ANC to the enduring hell of suspicion and doubt," Business Day newspaper said.
The Cape Times, in a front-page editorial, said: "It is a great pity that we may never know whether the hands of the country's next president are clean or not."
Main opposition leader Helen Zille on Tuesday sought a judicial review of the decision. "This is political stage management disguised as legal procedure," said Zille of the Democratic Alliance party.
Zuma was greeted with cheers and chants from hundreds of supporters Tuesday outside the Durban courthouse where the charges were dropped. Some people climbed into trees to get a better view of him. Zuma addressed the crowd in Zulu for nearly an hour and urged them to put the matter behind them.
"We can't waste time; we need to develop the country and our people," Zuma said to applause. "This is now history. Let's go forward."
Zuma was accused of seeking bribes to thwart an investigation into wrongdoing by a French arms company involved in a massive weapons deal in the late 1990s. Prosecutors also have withdrawn charges against the company.
Mokotedi Mpshe, acting director of public prosecutions, said Monday that key prosecutors had abused their powers in pursuing the case against Zuma by trying to time an announcement of charges against him with a key ANC conference in late 2007, presumably to undermine his bid to become party president. Zuma ultimately won the leadership race at that conference.
The decision to drop the charges, coming just two weeks before national elections expected to be swept by the ANC, also was questioned. The National Prosecuting Authority has maintained that its decision was not timed to the election.
"Two weeks before the election, (the National Prosecuting Authority) has caved in to political pressure from the Jacob Zuma faction of the ANC, and discontinued a prosecution selectively," the Democratic Alliance said in a statement.
The dropped charges against Zuma are believed to be a minor sideshow in a scandal in which tens of millions of dollars allegedly were paid in bribes to secure contracts in the multibillion-dollar arms deal soon after democracy came to South Africa in 1994.
Seven countries — including Britain, France and Germany — as well as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development are investigating companies alleged to have paid the bribes. Three books have been written about it.
But South African officials steadfastly have refused demands from several quarters for an independent commission of inquiry. Some had hoped that getting Zuma on the witness stand would bring out the truth since he once threatened that he would not be the only one to fall.
In 2005, Zuma's friend and financial adviser Shabir Shaik was sentenced to 15 years in jail for fraud and corruption for securing bribes equivalent to $61,000 a year for Zuma to shield a French arms company from corruption investigations. Prosecutors said then there was enough evidence to convict Zuma.
Zuma was initially charged in 2005, but the case was dismissed in 2006. He was charged again in December 2007, days after he ousted then-President Thabo Mbeki as ANC president.
The corruption allegations, though, have not affected Zuma's support among a grass-roots base of impoverished black South Africans who believe his promises to transform basic needs like housing, education and health that have remained inadequate as a small ANC elite has become billionaires.
Support was not even affected by rape charges in 2006, which ended in Zuma's acquittal. He outraged some, though, by testifying that he had unprotected, consensual sex with an HIV-positive family friend and then took a shower in the belief it would protect him from the virus.
Zuma has threatened in the past to sue award-winning cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro for depicting him with a showerhead over his bald head. Earlier this year, the ANC was angered by a Sunday Times cartoon depicting Zuma preparing to rape justice. The Times said the cartoon was a comment on accusations Zuma was undermining justice with a protest campaign to have the corruption charges against him dropped.
On Tuesday, the Afrikaans-language newspaper Beeld ran a cartoon with the chief prosecutor replacing the showerhead with a halo.
___
No comments:
Post a Comment