THE JG ZUMA FOUNDATION REJECTS THE NPA STATEMENT

22 December 2022

The Foundation rejects with the contempt it deserves, the improper and unprofessional attempt by the NPA to play the judge in interpreting its own certificate which is the subject of a dispute between the Private Prosecutor and an Accused person. This is totally unheard of.

The matter simply revolves around the nolle prosequi certificate issued by the NPA on 21 November 2022 when the NPA declined to prosecute " any person in connection with the matter" dealt with in the police complaint submitted by President JGZ at the Pietermaritzburg Police Station. The crux of the NPA statement is that the certificates were not issued in relation to the President because "the President was not mentioned in any of the affidavits and statements" which form part of the docket. Nothing could be further from the truth.

This statement is demonstrably false and it is nothing but a thinly veiled attempt to rescue Mr Ramaphosa.

Paragraph 17 of the relevant affidavit reads as follows:

"The alleged conduct also forms part of separate proceedings which are conducted by the President of the Republic, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa ....The relevant complaint letter written to President Ramaphosa and his response form part of the full papers in an application which I brought to supplement my plea in any criminal trial."

It is therefore totally mind boggling how any member of the NPA who has had any sight of the docket can even begin to falsely state that the President is not mentioned in the docket. Indeed even if the denial was true, it would still be inappropriate for the NPA to so blatantly take sides in favour of a criminal suspect.

Section 13 of the Criminal Procedure Act allows the NPA to "apply by motion to the court before which the private prosecution is pending to stop all further proceedings in the case in order that a prosecution of the offence in question may be instituted, or, as the case may be, continued at the instance of the State, and the court shall make such an order. Beyond that role, the NPA has no business interfering in this matter in the manner described above.

We challenge the NPA to tell the country once and for all whether it is prepared to prosecute Mr Ramaphosa as an accessory after the fact in respect of the offences raised in the police complaint. If so then the private prosecution must be stopped. If not, then it will have no option but to issue a certificate to that effect, which will bring us to the exact same position as the present. This shows the futility of the NPAs intervention which constitutes further abuse of state resources which has characterised this matter by certain organs such as the State Attorney and the Spokesperson in the Presidency.

The NPA must stay out of this dispute and humble itself to the final say of courts in the interpretation of what the NPA meant to convey in using phrases like "any person" and "in connection with the matter". Subjective statements in that regard are not worth the paper they are written on.

Mr Ramaphosa remains criminally charged and is to appear before the Jhb High Court in person on the 19th January 2023 at 09h30.

Statement issued by JGZ Foundation, Mzwanele Manyi, 22 December 2022