SA should learn from South Korea and jail Zuma
SA’s judiciary, prosecuting authorities and the Zondo commission could learn from their peers in South Korea on how they dealt decisively with their former president, who refused to co-operate with the courts and official inquiries and investigations over allegations of corruption, wrongdoing and patronage.
They sent her to jail in her absence.
Former South Korean president Park Geun-hye was tried in absentia for bribery, abuse of power, leaking state secrets and colluding with a non-office-bearer confidante to extort millions from South Korean corporations after she refused to participate in court proceedings.
As shocking revelations of corruption, abuse of power and incompetence continue to spill out from witnesses appearing before the Zondo commission, and Jacob Zuma, who is at the centre of it all, refuses to answer for his role, he should be prosecuted in absentia, even if it means missing out on crucial information from him to complete the corruption picture.
Park’s prosecution laid bare a maze of corruption between the political leadership of the governing party, government institutions and local business, which shows stunning parallels with that of Zuma, the ANC, state entities and corrupt local business.
In 2016, South Korea’s parliament voted to impeach
Park Geun-hye, who had been in office from 2013 to
2016. Park, the former leader of the Saenuri or New Frontier Party, was charged with grand corruption, abuse of power and illegally taking monthly payments from the country’s intelligence agency.
She was accused of colluding with her longtime confidante, spiritual adviser and business associate Choi Soon-sil, to channel millions of dollars in bribes, protection money and extortion fees from some of the country’s giant corporations, including electronics giant Samsung.
It was alleged that Choi, through her close association with Park, “enjoyed extraordinary power to make decisions in state affairs despite holding no official position”.
Choi’s corrupt relationship with Park was similar to the Gupta brothers’ relationship with Zuma.
Korean parliamentarians were initially unenthusiastic to impeach Park, asking her to resign from the presidency instead. However, when she refused to resign, claiming innocence, they pursued impeachment.
After the country’s parliament voted in 2016 to impeach her, the Constitutional Court in early 2017 scheduled impeachment hearings. Park refused to attend or testify in the court hearings.
She denied the corruption allegations, saying her impeachment was a witch-hunt orchestrated by powerful political opponents. Her lawyer, Lee Joonghwan,
said Park would not attend any Constitutional Court hearing into her impeachment, which she did not recognise as legitimate.
The court proceeded without her, impeaching her in her absence. Following her impeachment, Park also refused to attend subsequent corruption trials in the lower and high courts.
At some point in November 2017, she refused to appear at her corruption trial at the Seoul central district court, citing back pain and swelling in her knee.
While the corruption trials were in progress she was in detention. Her supporters rallied behind her, staging rallies in Seoul every Saturday while her cases were being heard, claiming her innocence and demanding she be released.
Like Zuma, Park, during her corruption trial, attacked the country’s judiciary, investigating and prosecuting agencies, saying they were biased against her. Court proceedings at some stage had to be suspended after her legal team resigned in protest because the court extended her detention during the trial period.
The Seoul central district court in April 2018 convicted Park on 16 counts of corruption and gave her a 24-year jail sentence. She was fined 33-billion won (about R426m). Park refused to attend her sentencing.
In July 2018 the country’s high court added eight more years in prison after finding her guilty of additional corruption charges, including of siphoning off money from the intelligence agency.
She was also found guilty of interfering in the governing party’s selection of candidates for parliamentary elections, to push through her favourites. Park was not present when the high court delivered its judgment.
The South Korean courts also convicted dozens of senior party officials, civil servants and business tycoons, including Jae-yong, the Samsung heir and vice-chair of Samsung Electronics, who was sentenced to five years in prison, later suspended, for giving bribes to Park in return for government support.
Park came from one of South Korea’s powerful political dynasties.
She was the daughter of the former military dictator, Park Chung-hee, who ruled South Korea between 1961 and 1979.
SA’s judiciary should send Zuma to jail for contempt of court, notwithstanding his refusal to co-operate, just like the South Korean judiciary did with Park.
Whether he is the former president or not — and even if he and his supporters threaten the judiciary and have the power to unleash violence on the country — should be irrelevant.
Like Zuma, former president Park Geun-hye, during her corruption trial, attacked the country’s judiciary
Gumede is associate professor, School of Governance, Wits University, and author of Restless Nation: Making Sense of Troubled Times (Tafelberg)