Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Zuma braced for decision on graft charges
JACOB Zuma could know in the coming days whether he will be prosecuted for 783 counts of corruption related to the arms deal.
In another twist, President Cyril Ramaphosa withdrew an application by Zuma in the Constitutional Court yesterday that he should not be prosecuted. This leaves National Prosecuting Authority head Shaun Abrahams to fight the case alone in the Concourt on Wednesday.
Abrahams is also fighting a Pretoria High Court decision that Ramaphosa must appoint the new head of the NPA.
Abrahams yesterday received recommendations from a team of prosecutors looking into the case. Although the NPA was mum on when Abrahams was likely to make the decision, a minister said it would be made on Wednesday. However, it was believed that if the NPA did decide to prosecute Zuma, he would appeal against the decision.
Zuma already said last year that one of the points he was going to argue in the case was the KPMG report that was used in the prosecution of Schabir Shaik. This followed the KPMG scandal with the Guptas, and advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza was roped in by the audit firm to probe its shenanigans with the controversial family.
Abrahams himself may not make the decision if Ramaphosa fires him soon. In his State of the Nation address, Ramaphosa said he would fix the NPA, and this included a change at the top of its leader- ship. Zuma has been fighting the spy tapes for nine years after the official opposition brought the application after then acting NPA head, Mokotedi Mpshe, dropped the charges in April, 2009.
Appeals and counter- appeals by the former president have dragged the matter out in court.
Zuma is also expected to testify in the commission of inquiry into state capture.
Zuma and Ramaphosa denied recently that the former president was negotiating legal fees when the ANC national executive committee recalled him.
Zuma’s legal bill has been mounting for years and the DA has estimated it was around R30 million.
This followed the recent court judgment on the spy tapes. The opposition parties have been waiting on Abrahams to prosecute Zuma since late last year.
But Abrahams extended Zuma’s deadline to make representations to the end of last month.